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DURUY'S HISTORY OF FRANCE. Edited 
by J. F. Jameson. With 12 Colored 
Maps. l2mo, cloth, $2.00. 

DURUY'S GENERAL HISTORY OF THE 
WORLD. Revised and continued by 
Edwin A. Grosvenor. With 25 Colored 
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DURUY'S ANCIENT HISTORY. Revised 
by Edwin A. Grosvenor. With Colored 
Maps. l2nno, cloth, $1.00. 

CONTEMPORARY HISTORY (1848-1899). 
By Edwin A. Grosvenor. With Colored 
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HALLAM'S MIDDLE AGES. New Edition, 
with Colored Maps. l2mo, cloth, $1.50. 



THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY, 

NEW YORK AND BOSTON. 



ANCIEOT HISTORY OF THE EAST 

HISTOEY OF THE GEEEKS 
HISTOEY OF THE EOMANS 



BY 



VICTOR DURUY 



FORMERLY MINISTER OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION AND MEMBER 
OF THE ACADEMY 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH 



- REVISED AND EDITED BY 

EDWIN A. GEOSVENOR 

PROFESSOR OF EUROPEAN HISTORY IN AMHERST COLLEGE 



NEW YORK: 46 East 14th Street 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 

BOSTON : 100 Purchase Street 









COPTBIGHT, 1898 AND 1899, 

By THOMAS Y. CEOWELL & CO. 






. ^^'^'^ 1 m\i 






NatfaootJ ?PresB 

J. S. Gushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



INTRODUCTION 



Every work written by M. Duruy bears the stamp of bis 
peculiar genius. His knowledge of history was immense. 
But above all in marvellous degree he possessed the faculty, 
when confronted by a mass of facts, of recognizing the im- 
portant and essential, and of presenting it in vivid and not 
easily forgotten language. What sense of perspective is to 
the artist, that such ability to appreciate and compare is to 
the real historian. Some histories resemble monotonous 
plains, which never do more than undulate, where the hills 
are never high and the valleys are never profound. M. Duruy 
grasps the great ideas, the great events, the great achieve- 
ments of the past, and plants them upon his pages like 
mountain peaks. His narration is like a military parade, 
each captain stepping out in front of his troop. This fact 
not only adds interest and charm to his writings, but 
enhances their value. It furthermore guarantees that the 
worth of the present volume cannot be measured by its size. 

This book begins with the emergence of man from the 
cradle of the river basins in most remote antiquity. It 
traces the development of civilization in the Chinese, In- 
dian, Egyptian, Assyrian, Phoenician, Hebrew, and Per- 
sian monarchies. It brings to light whatever was best and 
most memorable in those distant societies, as well as their 
weaknesses and the causes of their decline. It sets forth 
the religions of Confucius, Brahma, Buddha, and Zoroaster, 
all, however impartially portrayed, paling before the unap- 
proached moral greatness of that Hebrew code which was 
confirmed by Jehovah from Sinai. 

The larger portion of the book is devoted to the two pre- 
eminent nations of the past, — 

" To the glory that was Greece, 
And the grandeur that was Rome," 

iii 



ir INTRODUCTION 

Combining philosophy and narration, yet ever pursuing the 
golden mean between the two, the author transports his 
reader into the very heart of Athens, and Sparta, and Rome. 
Long-dead heroes and long-vanished scenes he summons to 
life. Always preserving the truth and splendor of history, 
he breathes upon his pages the attractiveness of romance. 
The story ends with the wreck of the Roman Empire, while 
the Christian Church, unsubmerged in the ruins, is subduing 
to herself the barbarians who have come down like a flood. 

In addition to its claim upon the general reader, the whole 
affords an admirable text-book in preparation for college. 
It imparts ample information to answer the requirements of 
a college entrance examination in Greek and Roman history, 
and bestows that information in a manner that is never dull. 
The practical value of this English version is largely in- 
creased by a plentiful supply of maps. None were contained 
in the French original. But both book and map must be 
supplemented by the teacher. In every class-room, whatever 
the branch of study, the teacher, and not the text-book, how- 
ever excellent, must be the stimulating factor in instruction. 

EDWIN A. GROSVENOR. 



Ahhesst, Massachusetts, U. S. A, 
February 9, 1899. 



CONTENTS 



ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST 

PACK 

I. The Beginning 1 

The Earth. 

Man. 

Race and Language. 

The Black and Yellow Races. 

The White Race. The Aryans and Semites. 

Earliest Centres of Civilization. 

Primitive Books. 

II. China and the Mongols 8 

Great Antiquity of Chinese Civilization. 

Imperial Dynasties and Chinese Feudalism. 

The Great Wall and the Burning of the Books. Im- 
mense Extent of the Empire at the Beginning of 
our Era. 

Invasion of the Mongols in the Thirteenth Century. 

First Europeans in China. 

New Mongol Empire in Central Asia and India. 

China in Modern Times. 

Confucius and Chinese Society. 

m. India 16 

Contrast between India and China. 

Primitive Populations. The Aryans. The Vedas. 

History of India. 

The Castes. Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and Sudras. 

Political Organization and Religion. 

Buddhism. 

IV. Egypt . . • 24 

First Inhabitants. 

First Dynasties. 

Invasion of the Hyksos or Shepherds. 

Decline of Egypt. Invasion of the Ethiopians. 

The Last Pharaohs. 

Egypt under the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, 

and the Arabs. 
Egyptian Religion, Government, and Art. 



Vi CONTENTS 



V. The Assyrians 32 

The Tigris and the Euphrates. Babylon and Nineveh. 
Second Assyrian Empire. 

Last Assyrian Empire. Capture of Babylon by Cyrus. 
Government, Religion, and Arts of Assyria. 

VI. The Ph(enician8 . . . . . . . .36 

Phoenician Cities between Lebanon and the Sea. 
Phoenician Commerce and Colonies. 
Conquerors of Phoenicia. 

VIL The Hebrews 38 

Ancient Traditions. 
Eeligious and Civil Legislation. 
Moral Grandeur of Helarew Legislation. 
Conquest of Palestine. The Judges. The Kings. 
The Schism and the Captivity. 

The Jews under the Persians, the Greeks, and the 
Romans. 

VIII. The Medes and Persians 45 

Mazdeism. 

The Medes. 

The Persians under Cyrus. Conquest of Western Asia. 

The Persians under Cambyses and Darius. 

Government. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEKS 

I. Primitive Times .51 

Ancient Populations. Pelasgi and Hellenes. 

Heroic Times. The Trojan War. 

The Dorian Invasion. Greek Colonies and Institutions. 

II. Customs and Religion of the Greeks ... 55 
Spirit of Liberty in Customs and Institutions. 
Religion. 

III. Ltcurgus and Solon 60 

Sparta before Lycurgus. 

Lycurgus. His Political Ideas. 

Civil Laws. 

The Messenian Wars. 

Athens until the Time of Solon. The Archonship. 

Solon. 

The Pisistratidse. Clisthenes, Themistocles, 



CONTENTS vii 



^ IV. The Persian Wars (492-449) 66 

Eevolt of the Asiatic Greeks from the Persians. 

First Persian War. Marathon and MUtiades (490). 

Second Persian War. Salamis. 

Platsea. 

Continuance of the War by Athens. 

Last Victories of the Greeks. 

^V. The Age of Pericles 6& 

The Athenian People, 
Pericles. 
•^ Great Intellects at Athens. 
The Parthenon. 

VI. Rivalry of Sparta, Athens, and Thebes (431-359) . 70 

Irritation of the Allies against Athens. 

The Peloponnesian War to the Peace of Nicias, 

The Sicilian Expedition. Alcibiades. 

The Battle of ^gos Potamos. Capture of Athens. 

Power of Sparta. Expedition of the Ten Thousand. 

Agesilaus. 
Treaty of Antalcidas. 
Struggle between Sparta and Thebes. Epaminondas. 

V VII. Philip of Macedon and Demosthenes (359-336) . 75 
Philip. 

Capture of Amphipolis. Occupation of Thessaly. 
Demosthenes. 
Second Sacred War. Battle of Chseronea. 

VIII. Alexander (336-323) 78 

Submission of Greece to Alexander (336-334). 

Expedition against Persia (334). Conquest of the 
Asiatic Coast and of Egypt. 

Conquest of Persia. Death of Darius. Murder of 
Clitus (334-327). 

Alexander beyond the Indus. His Eeturn to Baby- 
lon, and Death (337-323). 

The Age of Alexander. 

IX. Conversion of Greece and of the Greek Kingdoms 

into Roman Provinces (323-146) ... 82 

Dismemberment of Alexander's Empire. 

Kingdoms of Syria (201-64) and of Egypt (301-30). 

Kingdom of Macedon (301-146). Cynocephalae and 
Pydna. 

Death of Demosthenes (322). The Achaean League 
(251-146). 



VIU CONTENTS 



FAOB 

ScsiMART OF Greek History 86 

Services rendered by the Greeks to General Civiliza- 
tion. 

Defects of the Political and Religious Spirit among 
the Greeks. 



HISTOEY OF THE ROMANS 

I. Rome. The Ancient Roman Constitution (753-366) . 89 

The Royal Period (753-510), 

The Republic. Consuls. Tribunes. 

The Decemvirate and the Twelve Tables. 

The Plebeians attain Admission to All Offices. 

n. The Conquest of Italy (343-265) .... 94 

Capture of Rome by the Gauls (390). 
The Samnite Wars. 
Pyrrhus. 
The Gauls, 

III. The Punic Wars (264-146) 98 

First Punic War (264-241). Conquest of Sicily. 
"War of the Mercenaries against Carthage (241-238). 
Second Punic War (218-201). 
Third Punic War (149-146). Destruction of Carthage. 

IV. Foreign Conquests of Rome (229-129) . . .103 

Partial Conquest of Illyricum (229) and of Istria 

(217). 
The Conquerors of Asia Minor, Macedon, and Greece. 
Conquest of Spain (197-133). Viriathus. Numantia. 

V. First Civil Wars. The Gracchi. Marius. Sulla 

(133-79) 106 

Results of Roman Conquests on Roman Maimers and 

Constitution. 
The Gracchi (133-121). 
Marius. Conquest of Numidia (118-104). 
Invasion of the Cimbri and Teutones (113-102). 
Renewal of Civil Troubles. Saturninus (106-98). 
Sulla. The Italian Revolt (98-88). 
Proscriptions in Rome. Sulpicius and Cinna (88-84). 
Victory of Sulla. His Proscriptions and Dictatorship 

(84-79). 
The Popular Party ruined by the Defeat of Sertorius 

(72). 



CONTENTS ix 



VI. From Sulla to C^sar, Pompey, and Cicero (79-60) . 115 

War against Mithridates under Sulla (90-84). 

War against Mithridates under Lucullus and Pompey 
(74-63). 

Revival of the Popular Party at Eome. The Gladia- 
tors (71). 

Alliance of Pompey with the Popular Party. War 
with the Pirates (67). 

Cicero. Conspiracy of Catiline (63). 

VII. C^SAR (60-44) 121 

Caesar, Leader of the Popular Party. His Consulship 
(60). 

The Gallic War. Victories over the Helvetii, Ario- 
vistus, and the Belgae (58-57). 

Submission of Armoricum and Aquitaine, Expedi- 
tions to Britain and beyond the Rhine (56-53). 

General Insurrection. Vercingetorix. 

Defeat of Crassus by the Parthians (53). 

Civil War between Csesar and Pompey (49-48). 

War at Alexandria. Caesar Dictator (48-44). 

VIII. The Second Triumvirate 127 

Octavius. 

Second Triumvirate. Proscription. Battle of Philippi 
(42). 

Antony in the East. The Persian War. Treaty of 
Misenum (39). 

Wise Administration of Octavius. Expedition of An- 
tony against the Parthians. 

Actium. Death of Antony and Reduction of Egypt 
to a Province (30). 

IX. Augustus and the Julian Emperors (31 b.c. to 68 a.d.) 134 

Constitution of the Imperial Power (30-12). 
Administration of Augustus in the Provinces and at 

Rome. 
Foreign Policy. Defeat of Varus (9 a.d.). 
Tiberius (14-37). 
Caligula (37-41). 
Claudius (41-64). 
Nero (54-68). 

X. The Flavians (69-96) 144 

Galba, Otho, and Vitellius (68-69). 
Vespasian (69-79). 
Titus (79-81). 
Domitian (81-96). 



X CONTENTS 

PAGK 

XL The Antonines (96-192) 147 

Nerva (96-98). 
Trajan (98-117). 
Hadrian (117-138). 
Antoninus (138-161), 
Marcus Aurelius (161-180). 
Commodus (180-192), 

XII. Military Anakcht (192-285) 152 

Pertinax and Didius Julianus (192-193). 

Septimius Severus (193-211). 

Caracalla (211-217). 

Macrinus (217). 

Heliogabalus (218-222), 

Alexander Severus (222-235). 

Six Emperors in Nine Years (235-244), 

Philip (244-249). Decius (249-251). The Thirty 

Tyrants (251-268). 
Claudius (268). Aurelian (270). Tacitus (275). 

Probus (275), Carus (282). 

XIII. Diocletian and Constantine (285-337), Christianity 159 

Diocletian (285-305). The Tetrarchy. 

New Emperors and Civil Wars (303-323), 

Christianity. 

Reorganization of the Imperial Administration. 

Last Years of Constantine, 

XIV. CoNSTANTius (337). Julian, Theodosius . . . 170 

Constantius (337), 

Julian (361). 

Jovian (363). Valentinian and Valens (364). 

Theodosius (378). 

End of the Western Empire (476). 

Summary. 



ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST 



THE BEGINNING 

The Earth. — Every primitive religion has sought to 
explain God, the world, the creation of man, and the co- 
existence on earth of good and evil. Therefore all ancient 
peoples had or still preserve pious legends in harmony with 
their country and climate, their customs and social state; 
that is to say, with the conditions under which they lived, 
felt, thought, and believed. Of these early narratives the 
most simple and the grandest is Genesis, the sacred book 
of the Jews and Christians. 

Science, in its turn, seeks to fathom those mysteries, 
although the origin of things must forever elude it. It 
indeed renounces the task of solving questions which faith 
alone must decide. Yet, by a magnificent elfort of exam- 
ination and comparison, it has succeeded in acquiring a mass 
of truths, the discovery of which would prove the greatness 
of man, were not his littleness demonstrated every moment 
by the infinity of time and space into which his gaze and 
thought plunge with an insatiable and too often powerless 
curiosity. 

Our solar system, with all the stars which compose it, is 
only a speck in immensity. According to the hypothesis 
of Laplace, which nothing so far has disproved, those stars 
themselves originally formed but a single whole. It was 
one of those prodigious nebulae, such as are still seen in the 
vastitude of the heavens, and are probably so many suns in 
process of formation. Our nebula became concentrated 
into a focus of heat and light, but as it followed its path 
through space, it now and again threw off masses of cosmic 
matter which formed the planets. The latter, as if demon- 

B 1 



2 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST 

strating their origin, still revolve in the orbit of the sun 
from which they emanated. 

The globe which we inhabit is therefore a tiny fragment 
of the sun, which extinguished as it cooled and enveloped 
itself successively in a gaseous ocean, the atmosphere; 
then in a liquid ocean, the sea; and finally in a solid crust, 
the land, the highest points of which emerge above the 
waves. 

Animal life awoke first in the bosom of the waters, where 
it was represented in most ancient times, thousands of cen- 
turies ago, by species intermediate between the vegetable 
and animal, and analogous to corals and sponges. Then 
came molluscs, Crustacea, and the first fishes. At the same 
time the seaweeds had their birth in shallow waters. 
Meanwhile the air, saturated with carbonic acid and nitro- 
gen, developed upon the half-submerged land a mighty 
vegetation, wherein predominated those tree-ferns and 
calamites whose remains we find in mines of anthracite and 
bituminous coal. 

Thus in the animal and vegetable kingdoms the simplest 
organisms were produced. Time passed, many thousand 
centuries elapsed, but the work of creation went on. 
Ancient forms were changed or new forms were created. 
The organism became complicated; functions were multi- 
plied; life took possession of the earth, the sea, and the 
air, blossoming in greater variety of forms, and richer and 
more powerful in its means of action. At last man appeared. 

Thus, continual ascent toward a more perfect life seems 
to have been the law of the physical as it was, later on, of 
the intellectual world. During the geological period nature 
was modifying the organism, and hence the functions, and 
was developing instinct, that first gleam of intelligence. 
In the historical period, civilization modifies social order 
and develops human faculties. In the first case, progress 
is marked by change of form ; in the second, by change of 
ideas. 

Man. — At what epoch did man make his appearance upon 
the earth? Hardly more than half a century ago unlooked- 
for discoveries shattered all the old systems of chronology, 
and proved that man himself had part in the geological 
evolutions of our globe. Flints and bones shaped into axes, 
knives, needles, arrow heads, and spear heads; bones of 
huge animals cleft lengthwise, so that the marrow might 



THE BEGINNING * 3 

be extracted for nourishment; heaps of shells and debris 
of repasts; ashes, the evident remains of antediluvian 
hearths ; even pictures traced on shoulder bones and slate 
rocks, representing animals now extinct or seen only in 
places very distant from those they then inhabited; finally, 
human remains found unquestionably in the deposits of the 
quaternary epoch, and traces of human industry, which 
seem to be detected even in the tertiary strata, — prove that 
man lived at a time when our continents had neither the 
fauna, the flora, the climate, nor the shape which they have 
to-day. 

The most numerous discoveries have been made in 
France. But, on the slopes of Lebanon as in the caves of 
Perigord, in the valleys of the Himalayas as in those of 
the Pyrenees, on the banks of the Missouri as on those 
of the Somme, primitive man appears with the same arms, 
the same customs, the same savage and precarious life, 
which certain tribes of Africa, Australia, and the New 
World still preserve under our very eyes. The future king 
of creation was as yet only its most miserable product. 
Thus, science has moved back the birth of mankind toward 
an epoch when the measure of time is no longer furnished, 
as in our day, by a few generations of men, but where we 
must reckon by hundreds of centuries. This is the Stone 
Age. It is already possible for us to divide it into many 
periods, each showing progress over the one preceding. 
We begin with stones roughly fashioned into implements 
and weapons, and with caverns which serve for refuge ; we 
reach stones artistically worked and polished, pottery 
shaped by hand and even ornamented, and lake cities or 
habitations raised on piles ; at last we arrive at dolmens 
and menhirs, those so-called druidic monuments which were 
formerly recognized only in France and England, but which 
now are found almost everywhere. Thus the first man 
recedes and becomes lost in a vague and appalling antiquity. 

Do all men descend from a single pair? Yes, if we de- 
termine the unity of the species from the sole consideration 
that intermarriage of any two varieties of the human race 
may resvilt in offspring. Nevertheless, physiology and 
linguistic science set forth very wide differences between 
the various branches of the human family. 

Race and Language. — Intermarriage and the influence of 
habitation, that is, of soil and climate, have produced many 



4 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST 

varieties of race. These are generally grouped in three 
principal classes, the White, the Yellow, and the Black. 
To them may be added a number of intermediate shades 
arising from amalgamations that have taken place on the 
borders of the three dominant classes. If all spring from 
a common origin, they have none the less developed in dis- 
tinct regions: the White, or Caucasian, on the table-land 
of Iran, whence it reached India, Western Asia, and all 
Europe; the Yellow, or Mongolian, in China, in Northern 
Asia, and the Malay peninsula; the Black in Africa and 
Australia. This race is regarded by certain authors as 
descending from an earlier creation of mankind. The 
aborigines of America appear to have Mongolian blood. 

Languages are also classed in three great groups, the 
monosyllabic, the agglutinative, and the inflected. The 
first class possesses only roots, which are at once both nouns 
and verbs, and which the voice expresses by a single sound, 
but the meaning of which varies according to position in 
the sentence and the relation they sustain to other words. 
In the second class the root does not change, but is built 
upon by the juxtaposition of particles that are easily rec- 
ognized and answer all grammatical demands. In the third 
class the root undergoes modifications of form, sound, 
accent, and meaning. In this way the noun is made to 
express gender, number, and relation; and the verb, tense, 
and mode. Hence the inflected languages are the most 
perfect medium for the expression and development of 
ideas. 

All the languages spoken on the globe, whether in former 
times or to-day, represent one of these phases. The white 
race, being the most developed, employs the third. The 
Turanian idioms (Tartar, Turkish, Finnish), those of the 
African tribes, and of the American Indians, belong to 
the second. The ancient Chinese stopped at the first phase. 
Their descendants advance slowly toward the second, retain- 
ing for their written language some fifty thousand ideo- 
graphic characters, each of which was, like the Egyptian 
hieroglyphics, originally the image of an object or the con- 
ventional representation of an idea. 

The Black and Yellow Races. — History preserves no 
narrative of the Black Kace, whose existence, passed in the 
depths of Africa, has resembled rivers, the sources of 
which are unknown and the waters of which are lost in the 



THE BEGINNING 5 

desert. We know little more about the American Indians 
or the islanders of Oceanica. Our science is small as yet, 
for it is young. In our own time it has created paleon- 
tology or the history of the earth, and comparative philology 
or the history of languages, races, and primitive ideas. 
Thus it has lifted one corner of the veil that conceals the 
creation of nature and the beginning of civilization. Hence, 
of the black and red races, the ancient masters of Africa, 
Oceanica, and the New World, there is nothing to inscribe 
in the book of history save their names. 

The Yellow Race, on the contrary, boasts the most ancient 
annals of the world, an original civilization, and empires 
which still exist. The Chinese and the Mongols are its 
best-known representatives. Attached to it are all the 
peoples of Indo-China and several among the most primitive 
populations of Hindustan. So, too, are the Thibetan, 
Turkish, and Tartar tribes, whose fixed or nomadic habita- 
tions extend from the west of China as far as the Caspian 
Sea; also the Huns, so terrible to Europe in the fifth cen- 
tury of our era, and probably the Hungarians or Magyars. 

The White Race : The Aryans and Semites. — The White 
Race, which has accomplished almost alone the work of civi- 
lization, is divided into two principal families: the Semites, 
in the southwest of Asia and Northern Africa; the Aryans 
or Indo-Europeans, in the rest of Western Asia and Europe. 
They appear to have had their cradle in the lands north- 
west of the Indus toward ancient Bactria, now the khanate 
of Balkh, in Turkestan. Thence powerful colonies set out 
which planted themselves at intervals from the banks of the 
Ganges to the uttermost parts of the West. The kinship 
of the Hindus, Medes, and Persians in the East; of the 
Pelasgi and Hellenes in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy ; of 
the Celts, Germans, and Slavs north of the Black Sea, the 
Balkans, and the Alps, has been proved by their idioms, by 
grammatical analogies, and by word-roots. Thus Greek 
and Latin are sister tongues, closely allied to Sanskrit, 
the sacred language of the Indian Brahmans. Celtic, Ger- 
manic, and Slavic languages or dialects show likewise that 
they are vigorous offshoots of this great stock. 

Before their separation these tribes had already domesti- 
cated the sheep, goat, pig, and goose, and had subdued the 
ox and horse to the yoke. They had begun to till the earth, 
to work certain metals, and to construct fixed dwellings. 



6 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST 

Marriage among them was a religious act. The family -was 
the foundation of all public order. Associated families 
formed the tribe ; many tribes constituted the people, whose 
chief was the supreme judge during peace, and led the war- 
riors in battle. They had the vague consciousness of a First 
Cause, "of a G-od raised above other gods." But this doc- 
trine, too exalted for people in their infancy, was obscured 
and concealed by the deification of natural forces. 

As for the Semites, established between the Tigris, the 
Mediterranean, and the Red Sea, they had, as far back as 
we can penetrate, one single system of languages, which 
leads us to attribute to them a single origin. Moreover, 
the Bible makes the Arabs, as well as the Jews, descend 
from Abraham. The Syrians and Phoenicians were of the 
same blood. Semitic colonies peopled Northern Africa 
as far as the Straits of Gibraltar. It was in the midst of 
this race, born in the desert where nature is simple and 
changeless, that in all its purity and splendor the dogma of 
one only God was to be preserved. 

Thus two great currents of white populations were 
formed, which, starting from the centre of Asia, flowed 
from east to west, over the western region of that conti- 
nent, the north of Africa, and the whole of Europe. 

Earliest Centres of Civilization. — These men of the ancient 
ages, the first-born of the world, continued for a long time 
savage and miserable before they constituted regular socie- 
ties. When, at last, they had found localities endowed 
with natural fertility, where the search for means of exist- 
ence did not absorb all the forces of the body and mind, 
association assumed regular forms. The elementary arts 
were invented, the first compacts made, and the great work 
of civilization was begun, which man will never complete, 
but which he will always carry farther. 

If we study the physical configuration of Asia, we shall 
readily understand why in that continent there were three 
centres of primitive civilization : China, India, and Assyria. 
Like waters which, held back for a time in elevated regions, 
flow toward lower levels and there form great streams, so 
men descend into the plain sheltered by mountains and ren- 
dered fertile by rivers. Such great natural basins, cradles, 
as it were, of flowers and fruits, prepared by the hand of 
God for infant races, were the valley of the Ganges, which 
the Himalayas surround with an impassable rampart, the 



THE BEGINNING 7 

plain of the Tigris and the Euphrates, which the mountains 
of Media, Ararat, Taurus, and Lebanon encompass, and the 
fertile regions of the Kiang or Blue River and of the 
Hoang-Ho or Yellow River, bounded on the west by 
the Yung-Ling and In-Chan mountains. Egypt offers 
another example of such civilization blossoming out upon 
the banks of a great stream in a fertile land. 

Primitive Books. — If from these general facts which his- 
tory has recovered we wish to pass to more precise details, 
we must scrutinize the books which go far back in the series 
of the centuries, and which narrate, without hesitation, the 
creation of heaven and earth, and of man and animals, the 
formation of the oldest societies, and the invention of 
the first arts. But the examination and comparison of cos- 
mogonies, of religions, and primitive legends, make us 
recognize everywhere the creative power of popular imagina- 
tion in the youth of the world. We see man in the state 
of childhood, with the rashness of ignorance, applying his 
curiosity to nature in its entirety. As the laws of the phys- 
ical world were then hidden from him, we see him trying 
to understand everything by conjecture. We see him, still 
like the child in his effort to explain all, transforming into 
living persons the effects derived from the First Cause, 
while the Supreme Legislator remains hidden behind the 
multiplicity of phenomena resulting from his laws. Even 
in these venerable books, the exhaustive study of lan- 
guages, following the order of their historical develop- 
ment, has enabled us to discern the interpolations of 
various later epochs. Therefore it has been necessary, 
sometimes, to separate what has been brought together, to 
bring together what has been separated, and to give a new 
meaning to expressions, images, and ideas that had been 
wrongly understood. All the sacred books of ancient 
peoples have been subjected to these sure processes of 
modern science. This mighty work of philological re- 
search, dating almost from our own day, has already shed 
upon the relation of peoples and the formation of their 
beliefs a light which, though vacillating on many points, 
the preceding centuries could not even suspect. 



ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 2200-247. 



II 

CHINA AND THE MONGOLS 

Great Antiquity of Chinese Civilization. — To all ancient 
peoples their antiquity is a title of honor. Thus the Chinese 
inhabitants of the Celestial Empire, or, as they still call it, 
the Middle Kingdom, claim for themselves eighty or a hun- 
dred thousand years of existence prior to their half -authentic 
history. Even that goes back to the thirty-fifth century be- 
fore Christ, and about ten centuries later becomes suflBciently 
positive to present connected annals. 

We know not when or how that strange society was formed, 
which for at least four thousand years has retained the same 
character. Its practical mind was wholly occupied with the 
earth, which it conquered by agriculture and by industry, 
and but little concerned with heaven, which it left empty 
and deserted. On one side of the Himalayas, man, cradled 
with half -closed eyes on the bosom of an over-fertile nature, 
was intoxicated by the enervating breath of the mighty 
magician, and dreamed of countless benevolent or terrible 
divinities, who enjoined upon him contempt for life, and 
annihilation in Brahma. But on the other side of the moun- 
tains, a laborious, patient, active race drew from life all 
that it could give, and replaced the formidable systems of 
the Hindu gods by a merely human system of morality. 
The Emperor Chun, who reigned in the twenty-third cen- 
tury before our era, had already established for his people 
the five immutable rules, or the five duties of a father and 
his children, of a king and his subjects, of the aged and the 
young, of married persons, and of friends. At that time the 
empire was divided into provinces, departments, districts, 
and cities, with a great number of tributary peoples and 
vassal princes, who often revolted. 

Imperial Dynasties and Chinese Feudalism. — Until about 
the year 2200, the emperors were elected. Beginning with 
that period heredity was established, but with the corrective 
that the grandees could still select the most capable from 



B.C. 2200-247.] CEINA AND THE MONGOLS 9 

among the sons of the dead sovereign as his successor. The 
Emperor Yu began the Hia dynasty, which lasted four cen- 
turies, and ended as an abominable tyranny with frightful 
disorders. The founder of the second or Chang dynasty was 
a superior man, whose virtues were celebrated by Confucius. 
To appease the wrath of heaven during a famine, he made 
a public confession of his faults; and afterwards, whenever 
a great calamity occurred, his successors followed his exam- 
ple. They and their people believed that heaven would 
certainly be moved by this voluntary expiation, and there 
was both grandeur and lofty morality in this belief. 

The last of the Chang resembled the last of the Hia. 
When one of his ministers remonstrated with him, he re- 
plied: "Thy discourse is that of a wise man. But it is 
said that the heart of a wise man is pierced with seven 
holes. I wish to make sure of it," and he ordered him to 
be disembowelled. Wou Wang, prince of Tchu, revolted 
against the tyrant, who was vanquished, and died like Sar- 
danapalus. He heaped together all his wealth in a palace, 
set fire, and flung himself into the flames (1122). Wou 
Wang reorganized the ancient Tribunal of History, whose 
members held office for life that they might be independent. 
The political wisdom of the Chinese was chiefly founded on 
respect for their ancestors and for the examples which these 
had left. Under this dynasty the feudal kingdoms in- 
creased to the number of one hundred and twenty-five, and 
China had a real feudal system, which favored its civiliza- 
tion. To this epoch must be referred the construction of 
an observatory, which still exists, as well as the sun-dial 
set up by the successor of Wou Wang. The Chinese were 
already acquainted with the compass and with the proper- 
ties of a right-angled triangle. 

The Great Wall and the Burning of the Books. Immense 
Extent of the Empire at the Beginning of our Era. — Never- 
theless, Chinese feudalism ended, like our own, by produ- 
cing a vast anarchy. The emperor was without power. 
One of his tributaries asserted his prerogative of offering 
the sacrifice to Heaven, and confined the last Tchu in a 
palace. A new dynasty, that of the Tsin, overthrew all 
the feudal lords, and restored the great empire, which took 
its name. Its most illustrious chief, Tsin-Chi-Hoang-Ti, 
accomplished this revolution (247 b.c). He opened roads, 
tunnelled mountains, and, in order to stop the incursions of 



10 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 247-a.d. 1203. 

the nomad Tartars, constructed the Great Wall, twenty-five 
kilometres long ; but he has a deplorable celebrity for hav- 
ing burned books and persecuted men of letters. That 
everything might date from his reign, he wished to efface 
the past. Fortunately he could not destroy all the books 
or kill all the learned men. Chinese society was disturbed 
for the moment by this violent reformer, but soon returned 
to its traditional life. The Tsin dynasty did not last long. 
It was replaced by that of the Han, who ruled from 202 b.c. 
to 226 A.D. Under them the literati regained their influ- 
ence, and China attained the apogee of her power. Her 
armies penetrated even to the Caspian Sea, almost within 
sight of the frontier of the Koman Empire; and on the 
shores of the Eastern Sea kings and peoples obeyed her. 

Invasion of the Mongols in the Thirteenth Century. — But 
the two empires which shared between them the greater 
part of the then known world, secretly undermined by the 
vices fostered by too great success, tottered and fell under 
the repeated shocks of invasion. From the steppes, extend- 
ing from the Great Wall to the Caspian Sea, hordes set out 
at different periods and hurled themselves, right and left, 
upon the two societies where civilization had accumulated 
the wealth which these barbarians coveted. The result, for 
China, was its first dismemberment in two kingdoms, sepa- 
rated by the Blue River; and in both many obscure dynasties 
followed one another. The two were reunited in 618, but 
the new empire did not possess sufficient strength to resist 
the continual incursions of the Mongols, 

These nomads inhabited the same places whence, in the 
fourth century, had begun the invasion of the Huns which 
resulted in hurling barbarian Europe upon Roman Europe. 
They were always easily set in motion. Horses, herds, 
houses, all moved, or were readily carried, for the houses 
were only chariots or cabins placed on wheels and drawn 
by oxen. Such was the itinerant dwelling of the Tartar. 
He himself lived on horseback, remaining there, in case of 
need, day and night, awake or asleep. Meat packed between 
his saddle and the back of his horse, and milk curdled and 
dried, furnished his food. He feared neither fatigue nor 
privations, yielded to his chief a passive obedience, but was 
proud of his race and ambitious for his horde. 

Temudjin, the chieftain of one of these Mongolian hordes, 
united them all under his authority, in 1203. He took the 



A.D. 1203-1644.] CHINA AND THE MONGOLS 11 

name of Genghis Khan, or chief of chiefs, and promised 
this irresistible cavalry, ferocious and cunning as few people 
ever were, to lead them to the conquest of the world. He 
began by overwhelming the Tartars, his former masters, 
wrested from them northern China, which they had con- 
quered, and, leaving to his successors the task of subjugat- 
ing the provinces to the south of the Blue River and Corea, 
threw his armies upon Western Asia and Europe, where they 
marked their road across Persia, Russia, and Poland by 
bloody ruins. The hardy horsemen who had bathed their 
horses in the Eastern Ocean made them drink the waters 
of the Oder and the Morava at the foot of the Bohemian 
Mountains. Never had the sun shone upon such a wide 
dominion. It was necessarily brittle, yet the Russians were 
forced to endure it for two centuries, and were released from 
the Mongol yoke only by Ivan III., at the beginning of 
modern times. 

At the death of Genghis Khan (1227) his empire was 
divided into four states, — China, Turkestan, Persia, and 
Kaptchak, or southern Russia. His grandson, Kublai, who 
reigned over all China, Thibet, Pegu, and Cochin China, 
bore the title of grand khan, to which was attached an idea 
of superiority, so that, from Pekin to the banks of the 
Dnieper, everything seemed to obey him. But this suzer- 
ainty was not exercised long. Before the end of the thir- 
teenth century, the separation between the four kingdoms 
was complete. 

First Europeans in China. — Kublai Khan, founder of the 
Yen dynasty (1279), adopted the customs of his new sub- 
jects, respected their traditions, encouraged letters and 
agriculture, but embraced Buddhism, a religion originating 
in India, and now claiming in China two hundred million 
adherents, or half the population. A Venetian, Marco Polo, 
lived seventeen years at his court, and we still possess the 
interesting account of his travels. A national revolution 
in 1368 expelled the foreigners, when the Chinese Ming 
dynasty replaced that of the Mongols. This family occu- 
pied the throne until 1644, or till long after the arrival of 
the first European colonists in China, since the Portuguese 
establishment at Macao dates from the year 1514. 

New Mongol Empire in Central Asia and India. — During 
this period are determined the destiny of the Ottoman 
Turks, a people originally from Turkestan, and hence re- 



12 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [a.d. 1453-1860 

lated to the Mongols, and the career of Timur, surnamed 
Lenk, or the Lame, a descendant of Genghis Khan, The 
Turks took Constantinople in 1453. Timur, best known as 
Tamerlane, for the second time united the nomad Mongol 
hordes. Between 1370 and 1405 this terrible rival of Attila 
conquered Turkestan, Persia, India, and Asia Minor, de- 
feated in the Kaptchak the Mongols of the Golden horde, 
though he did not destroy their kingdom, and at the famous 
battle of Angora vanquished the Turks, whose sultan he 
took prisoner. Gazing from one end of Asia to the other, 
Tamerlane saw no empire still standing except that of China. 
He was marching his innumerable hordes against it, when 
death at last arrested the tireless old man who lives in his- 
tory as the most terrible incarnation of the malignant spirit 
of conquest. His empire was divided, and disappeared with 
the exception of a magnificent fragment, the Empire of the 
Great Mogul, which arose in the peninsula of the Ganges, 
and which fell only at the close of the last century under 
the blows of the English. 

China in Modern Times. — In China the indigenous Ming 
dynasty reigned with honor, but, content with prosperity 
and peace, neglected the customs and institutions of war. 
Thus the Celestial Empire was once more invaded in 1644 
by western nomads, the Mantchu Tartars. The Tsin dy- 
nasty, which they founded, still reigns at Pekin. Yet such 
was the resistant and absorbent force of this great Chinese 
society that, far from yielding to foreign influences, it has 
always conquered its conquerors. The Mantchu emperors 
made no change in its customs, and restored its fortune by 
giving it the boundaries which it possesses to-day. It was 
these princes who in 1840 waged with the English the opium 
war, which ended by the opening of five ports to foreign 
commerce, and who carried on with the English and French 
the war of 1860, which resulted in the victory of Palikao 
and the capture of Pekin. 

So the yellow race has made a great noise in the world. 
Through the Huns, it brought about the fall of the Roman 
Empire; through the Mongols of Genghis Khan, it raised, 
in the thirteenth century, the vastest dominion of the uni- 
verse ; through those of Tamerlane, it overthrew and crushed 
the population of twenty kingdoms ; through the Turks, it 
held Christianity in check for centuries ; through the Chi- 
nese, it has constituted a great society which, for fifty cen- 



B.C. 550-470.] CHINA AND THE MONGOLS 13 

turies and with unbroken continuity, has caused a large 
portion of the human race to enjoy the benefits of civilized 
life. 

Confucius and Chinese Society. — One man contributed, if 
not to establish, at least to maintain, the character which 
the Chinese constitution still preserves. This was Kung- 
fu-tsze, or Confucius. His books, serving as a gospel in 
the Middle Kingdom, must be learned by those who undergo 
the examinations required for obtaining literary rank and 
for admission to public functions. Confucius was not a 
legislator; he never had authority to publish laws, but he 
taught wisdom. "There is nothing so simple," he says, 
"as the moral code practised by our wise men of old; it is 
summed up in the observance of the three fundamental laws 
which regulate the relations between the sovereign and his 
subjects, between father and children, and between husband 
and wife, and in the exercise of the five capital virtues. 
These are : humanity or universal charity toward all mem- 
bers of our own species without distinction; justice, which 
gives his due to each individual without partiality; con- 
formity to prescribed rites and established usages, so that 
those who make up society may live alike and share the 
same advantages as well as the same disadvantages; up- 
rightness, or that rectitude of mind and heart which causes 
one to seek the truth in everything, without deception of 
self or of others; sincerity and good faith, or that frank- 
ness mingled with confidence, which excludes all pretence 
and disguise in conduct as well as in speech. These things 
are what have rendered our first teachers worthy of respect, 
and have immortalized their names after death. Let us 
take them for our models ; let us make every effort to imi- 
tate them." 

Elsewhere he sets forth the principles of religion and 
worship. "Heaven," he says, "is the universal principle, 
the fruitful source whence all things have flowed. Ances- 
tors who emerged therefrom have themselves been the source 
of succeeding generations. To give to Heaven proofs of 
one's gratitude is the first duty of man; to show himself 
grateful toward his ancestors is the second. For this reason 
Fou Hi established ceremonies in honor of Heaven and of 
ancestors." Thus religion and government rest iipon filial 
piety. Heaven is honored as the author of beings, and the 
emperor, the son of Heaven, is the father of his nation. 



14 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST 

Thanks to the strength of this sentiment, China has been 
enabled to pass through the numerous revohitions which 
the succession of its twenty-two native or foreign dynasties 
have brought upon it, while no essential change has been 
wrought in the internal system of government, under which 
the welfare of 400,000,000 men has been developed. Thus 
the Chinese have the right to say to us: "We envy you 
nothing; we enjoy all the useful arts; we cultivate wheat, 
vegetables, fruits. In addition to cotton, silk, and hemp, 
a great number of roots and barks furnish us with tissues 
and stuffs. Like you we understand mining, carpentry, 
joinery, the manufacture of pottery, porcelain, and paper. 
We excel as dyers, stone-cutters, and wheelwrights. Our 
roads and canals furrow the whole empire. Suspension 
bridges, as daring and lighter than yours, span our rivers 
or unite the summits of mountains." They might add, 
"We have a literature which goes back more than four 
thousand years, and a moral code as good as many another. 
Our sciences need no aid from those of Europe to compete 
with some of yours. Earlier than you we were acquainted 
with the mariner's compass, gunpowder, and printing, those 
great discoveries of which you make such boast. Now, if 
we have reached this point without foreign assistance, it is 
because, fixing our eyes on the past, we have not made over 
our institutions with every generation. Despite the changes 
of individuals on the throne of Pekin, and modifications of 
our frontiers, we have, through the confusion of conquests 
and invasions, preserved our social order and respected the 
state, because we respect the family." 

In that country there are neither nobility to guide and 
govern the people, nor slaves to corrupt it. The emperor, 
in homage to la,bor, himself at certain seasons opens the 
furrow with a plough. Intellect has forced a recognition of 
its rights, since office is bestowed with regard to neither 
birth nor fortune, but on account only of learning. Never- 
theless, there we see the vice and misery to which immense 
agglomerations of men or long-continued prosperity gives 
rise. Falsehood works its way into the institutions, which 
it distorts. Since, so to speak, this people has neither relig- 
ion, nor philosophy, nor art, and is ignorant of an ideal, 
it has remained on that midway mental level whence the 
fall to a still lower plane is easy. Absorbed by its needs 
and pleasures, it has not undergone those painful birth- 



CHINA AND THE MONGOLS 15 

throes of ideas, on account of which other nations have 
suffered so much, but have gained thereby an imperishable 
name. China has given nothing to the world; to the world 
she has been as though she existed not. 

Thus they have an airy architecture but no monuments. 
Their brick and wooden houses suggest the primitive tent. 
Their palaces are only piles of buildings constructed upon 
the tent type, sometimes not devoid of grace, but always 
devoid of grandeur. In painting and sculpture they imitate 
what they see, but they see the ugly and grotesque rather 
than the beautiful and true. Their imagination takes 
pleasure in strange forms, instead of idealizing natural' 
forms. Their landscapes are without perspective and their 
paintings without moral life. Everywhere are vulgar scenes 
which represent neither a sentiment nor an idea, but only 
reveal the sensual appetites of this listless and yet active 
race. 



16 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 1500-1000. 



Ill 

INDIA 

Contrast between India and China. — China and India 
adjoin each other. Nevertheless, between them intervenes 
more than the bulk of the Himalayas, "the Palace of 
Snow," as the Hindus call it. The two races are absolutely- 
separate by natural character and disposition. On the one 
side a harsh, positive spirit, without horizon, has settled 
and prescribed the rules of a moral code ; on the other are 
a disordered imagination, a faith ardent but without works, 
a useless asceticism which kills the flesh, and unbridled 
passions which satiate it; in short, man lost in the bosom 
of nature, and aspiring only to lose himself in the bosom of 
divinity. On both sides, a regular, changeless machine is 
the idea of government. With the former, this machine is 
set in motion by the learned, who devote all their attention 
to the life of the body; with the latter, it is set in motion 
by the priests, who issue their commands in the name of 
the gods. In the former case, any one can attain anything; 
in the latter, no one has the right or power to leave the caste 
in which he was born. 

Primitive Populations : the Aryans. The Vedas. — India, 
which consists of the two great valleys of the Indus and 
the Ganges, Hindustan, and of a peninsula, the Deccan, was 
first peopled by a black race, of which the Gonds are the 
last remnants; then by the Turanian tribes, such as the 
Tamils and Telingas, a distant branch of the Mongolian race; 
and lastly by men with brown and reddish skin, who appear 
to have been the base of population along the shores of the 
Indian Ocean, and with whom Herodotus was acquainted 
in Gedrosia, under the name of Ethiopians. It was the 
Aryans, however, who gave India its place in history. 
These Aryans formed part of a large group of white people 
permanently established in the valleys of the Hindu-koosh, 
the Indian Caucasus, possessing the same degree of civiliza- 
tion with similar languages, habits, and beliefs. When 



B.C. 1500-1000.] INDIA 17 

long centuries had crowded into this narrow place a too 
numerous population, had accentuated tribal differences, 
and aroused political and religious quarrels, then from this 
table-land, in four directions and at different epochs, streams 
of men poured forth who inundated half of Asia, India, and 
the whole of Europe. The Celts, Pelasgi, laones, or loni- 
ans, flowed toward Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, and Gaul; 
the Iranians toward Media and Persia; the Germans and 
Slavs, from the Ural Mountains to the Rhine; as for the 
Aryans, they turned to the southeast and crossed the Indus. 
They subjected the region of the Five Rivers, or Punjaub, 
after a prolonged struggle, the memory of which has been 
preserved in the Vedas, the first of their sacred books and 
among the most ancient monuments of our race. 

Fifteen centuries, perhaps, before Christ, the Aryans of 
the Punjaub conquered the fertile valley v/hich the Ganges 
overflows tvith periodical inundations like the Nile, and 
advanced as far as its mouths, which mingle with those of 
the Brahmapootra, a river equally mighty, whose source is 
found upon the northern slope of the Palace of Snow. 
Checked on the east by the mountains and the mass of 
Mongolian nations of Indo-China, the Aryans fell to fight- 
ing among themselves. The Mahabharata, the great Indian 
epic, still tells in 250,000 verses the story of the terrible 
war between the Kurus and the Pandavas, which ended 
only on the appearance of the hero Krishna, the incarna- 
tion of the god Vishnu. 

Delhi is the theatre of the principal events in the Maha- 
bharata, whose heroes do not quit the valley of the Ganges. 
This Indian Iliad presents singular affinities with the Greek 
Iliad, in certain parts surpasses the latter in beauty, and is, 
like it, the work of centuries. Together with the Vedas it 
throws light upon the origin of many beliefs and symbols 
spread among the ancient populations of Greece, Italy, and 
Northern Europe. The Ramatana, another epic poem, re- 
lates to the conquest by the Aryans of the peninsula of 
Hindustan and of the great island of Ceylon, whither Rama, 
" of the divine bow," carried the Vedic religion. This time 
a single author, Valmik, narrates in 48,000 verses the ex- 
ploits of the hero. The brilliancy and grandeur of his pict- 
ures and the touching grace of his poetry place him by the 
side of Virgil and Homer. 

History of India. — Unfortunately, this poetic and relig- 



18 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 50&-A.D. 1498. 

ions race possesses no other history than that of its gods. 
The conquest by Darius of the countries on the right of the 
Indus gave Herodotus no information concerning the India 
of the Ganges. On the left bank Alexander found the two 
Pori and many kings and independent peoples. He wished 
to go to Patna, the capital of the great Prasian Empire, at 
the junction of the Jamna and the Ganges. A revolt among 
his soldiers stopped him on the banks of the Hyphasis. 
An Indian of humble origin, named Tchandragoupta, ex- 
pelled the governors whom the Macedonian hero left in the 
Punjaub. He overthrew the empire of the Prasians, and 
received the ambassadors of Seleucus Nicator. The Greek 
kings of Bactriana held a part of the valley of the Indus, 
where we still find their medals. Later on, regular commer- 
cial relations were established between Egypt and the 
Indian peninsula, where Roman merchants founded count- 
ing-houses. Every year they carried thither more than 
four million dollars in cash to purchase silks, pearls, per- 
fumes, ivory, and spices. Thus, at the expense of the rest 
of the world, began that flow of precious metals to India 
whereby such enormous wealth has been accumulated in 
the hands of its princes. 

Such treasures tempted the Mussulmans of Persia. Early 
in the eleventh century, a Turkish chieftain, Mahmoud the 
Gaznevid, carried into the midst of those inoffensive popu- 
lations his iconoclastic rage, his cupidity, and his religion. 
The latter was adopted by a large number of the Hindus. 
The Turks were followed by the Mongols, whose chief 
reigned at Delhi until the last century under the name of 
Great Mogul. The discovery of the Cape of Good Hope 
and the arrival, in 1498, of Vasco da Gama at Calicut, 
placed India for the first time in direct relations with Europe. 
After the merchants of Lisbon came those of Amsterdam, 
Prance, and England. The English ended by seizing every- 
thing, and now reign from the Himalayas to Ceylon over 
200,000,000 subjects. 

The Castes : Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and Sudras. — Thus, 
nearly ten centuries ago, this intelligent and gentle race 
lost its independence, but it preserved its social organiza- 
tion, religion, and literature. The great god Brahma, say 
the sacred books, divided the people into four castes : the 
Brahmans, or priests, who sprang from his head; the 
Kshatriyas, or warriors, who came from his arms ; the Vai- 



B.C. 120O-900.] INDIA 19 

syas, or laborers and merchants, who issued from his belly 
and thighs; and the Sudras, or artisans, who came from his 
feet. The first three, or "the regenerated," who represent 
the Aryan conquerors, are the ruling castes. Marriage is 
prohibited between them and the lowest caste, which also 
includes the descendants of the aborigines, or the vanquished 
first inhabitants. The children born of forbidden unions, 
and all violators of religious laws are the parias or impure. 
They cannot inhabit the cities, bathe in the Ganges, or 
read the Vedas. To touch them occasions defilement. The 
Brahman s alone had the right to read and expound the 
Holy Scriptures or the revealed book. As all science and 
all wisdom were contained therein, they were both priests, 
physicians, judges, and poets. Interpreters of the will of 
heaven, they reigned by virtue of religious terror. Thus 
they were able to surround the rajahs or kings, chosen 
from the warrior caste, with the thousand prescriptions 
of a ceremonial which the laws of Manu have preserved 
for us. 

Not without terrible struggles did the Kshatriyas submit 
to this sacerdotal supremacy. Legends have preserved the 
memory of their resistance. The final triumph of the 
priests does not appear to have been complete until after 
the ninth century before Christ. India then received the 
organization, which in its principal features it still retains, 
and which we find in the book of the laws of Manu. The 
last compilation of these laws, certainly prior to the Buddh- 
ist reform in the sixth century before Christ, carries back 
this religious, political, and civil code to a far distant 
antiquity. 

Political Organizations and Eeligion. — The laws of Manu 
remind one of the Pentateuch of Moses. They undertake 
to set forth as by divine revelation the origin of the world; 
the institution of priests; certain precepts for the indi- 
vidual, the family, and the town ; "the duties of the prince 
and of the castes ; the civil and military organization, and 
penal and religious laws. Everything is summed up in two 
rules : for society, the subordination of castes ; for the indi- 
vidual, physical and moral purity. The Vedic gods are 
preserved therein, but are subordinated to Brahmi, the 
being absolute and eternal, impersonal and sexless, whence, 
nevertheless, emanates Brahma, the active principle of the 
universe, which in turn produces Paramatma, the soul of 



20 ANCIENT mSTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 900-600. 

the world. He, uniting with Manas, or the intellectual 
principle, gives origin to all beings, who deviate less from 
Brahma, their supreme source, in proportion as they possess 
more wisdom. 

Thus heaven and earth, with all the powers and beings 
therein, are the product of a series of successive emana- 
tions. In this immense chain, each being has the rank 
which his intellectual or moral value has assigned him. 
Thus, below the absolute Being appears the Indian Tri- 
murti : Brahma, who creates the worlds ; Vishnu, who regu- 
lates them ; and Siva, who destroys in order to regenerate 
them; then the Devas or gods, symbolical representations 
of the forces of nature ; then man ; still lower, the inferior 
creatures, real or imaginary, such as the Xagas and the 
Raxasas, with changing forms. By means of learning and 
of the rigorous observance of religious practices, especially 
by austerities which subdue the flesh, and ecstasy which 
annihilates personality and empties the individual soul into 
the soul of the world, man may equal the gods, command 
nature, and deserve at death annihilation in the bosom of 
Brahma. They whose asceticism and piety have not sufficed 
to secure such supernatural power and such annihilation in 
God are recompensed for their vulgar merits, after Yama, 
the god of death, has touched them, by entrance into the 
Svarga, and into the seven and twenty places of delight. 
The guilty are hurled into Xaraka, which is divided into 
twenty-one parts, according to the diversity of tortures 
undergone there. 

But the effect of good, as of bad works, is worn out by 
time. Heaven and hell cast back into life the souls which 
they have received. These souls reenter existence in differ- 
ent conditions, which are always determined, nevertheless, 
by the law of rise and descent in the scale of being according 
to their merit and demerit. This is metempsychosis, a doc- 
trine which subjected to successive transmigrations all or- 
ganized nature from the plant up to man. At the time 
fixed for the completion of a cycle everything was engulfed 
in Brahma, but speedily another creation emerged from him, 
and a new cycle began. The soul of the righteous alone 
was exempt from these painful rebirths, since his perfec- 
tions had won for him the privilege of alDSorption into the 
eternal essence. This was the reward awaited by the priests 
who had traversed a series of previous existences in such a 



B.C. 60O-530.] IXDIA 21 

manner as to deserve a final rebirth in the superior caste, 
whence they were to pass into the bosom of Brahma. 

This original conception of the transmigration of the soul, 
at once profound and simple, forced a vast system of expia- 
tion and reAvard, wherein evil and misery were explained by 
sin, and good fortune and power by virtue. Unfortunately 
this doctrine rendered legitimate a hierarchy of beings. It 
ratified the unalterable distinction of castes, and the con- 
tempt of the high for the low. It confirmed the constitu- 
tion of a theocracy which, the better to defend its power, 
made purity consist, not in real virtue, but in the observance 
of innumerable rites, the performance of which the priest 
superintended and regulated. 

Buddhism. — This theocracy, the most powerful which 
the world has ever known, was shaken in the sixth century 
before our era by the preaching of Gautama, surnamed 
Buddha, or the Wise. His father was the rajah of a country 
near oSTepaul. He was born in a royal palace, but at the 
age of twenty-nine abandoned his famil}^, wealth, and rank 
to seek truth in the desert. Seven years later he returned 
from his wanderings. To mixed crowds, regardless of indi- 
vidual position or origin, he began to preach, but only by 
parables. He moved his hearers profoundly. This popular 
teaching was in itself a revolt agiainst the Brahmaus, who 
forbade teaching of doctrines to the Sudras. Although it 
was presented only as a reformation, the new doctrine went 
much farther. Gautama was destroying Brahmanism by 
substituting the equality of all men before the moral law 
for the principle of caste, and by substituting virtues which 
consist in the practice of the good, for the spurious virtues 
exacted by a ritual. The promises of salvation, of union 
with the divine essence, made to the Brahman alone, he 
replaced by the recognized capacity of all men by their 
merits to win Nirvana, or deliverance. In short, he broke 
up priestly heredity by calling to the priesthood the poor 
and the beggars who devoted themselves to a religious life. 

Buddha established for men six perfections: knowledge, 
which must, above all, apply itself to distinguishing be- 
tween the true and the false; energy, which makes us war 
against our chief enemies, the pleasures of sense; purity, 
which demonstrates victory ; patience in enduring imaginary 
ills; charity, the bond of society; alms, the necessary con- 
sequence of charity. " I am come," he said, " to give to the 



22 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 530-150. 

ignorant wisdom, and wisdom is knowledge, virtue, alms. 
The perfect man is nothing unless he comforts the afflicted 
and succors the miserable. My doctrine is a doctrine of 
pity. The prosperous find it difficult, and pride themselves 
on their birth; but the way of salvation is open to all those 
who annihilate their passions as an elephant overturns a 
hut of reeds." 

These words, this so pure moral code, were astounding 
novelties. " This law of grace," opposed to a law of terror, 
made rapid progress among the lower castes, and even among 
the Kshatriyas, who had to endure the haughty domination 
of the Brahmans. Thus, despite the hatred of the priests 
against the reformer, Gautama was able to continue his 
apostolic work in peace until the age of eighty, without 
ever appealing to force, because he respected established 
order, and taught that men should render to princes that 
which was their due. When he died, his disciples collected 
his discourses, and convoked the first Buddhist council. 
Five hundred monks were present. After seven months of 
discussion they formulated their religious ceremonies and 
doctrine, which were stated with precision in a second 
council held in the fifth century, and in a third council 
about one hundred and fifty years before Christ. 

The ritual is extremely simple. The temple contains the 
image of Gautama, who is honored and respected as the 
wisest of men, but who receives no adoration. There are 
no sacrifices or superstitious practices ; at least there were 
none at the time when Buddhism had not yet been corrupted 
by the idolatrous traditions of the peoples among whom it 
spread and degenerated. In matter of dogma there was no 
separation from the ancient church. It even added to the 
Vedic divinities new but purer gods. It preserved the 
theory of rebirths, which, according to the Brahmanic doc- 
trine, were for the mass of the faithful only periodical returns 
to misery and despair; but it gave to all men the means of 
escaping from these evils by the individual's own merit 
without the providential intervention of the gods. 

The Western religions submit human personality during 
life to the action of Providence, and eternally preserve that 
personality after death by the resurrection of the body. In 
the pantheistic religions of the East, on the contrary, since 
all beings are of the same substance, they end by absorp- 
tion into the bosom of the absolute Being, which is the 



B.C.15O-A.D.800.] INDIA 23 

metaphysical bond of the universe. Buddhism did, it is 
true, recognize man's power to accomplish his own sal- 
vation; but the soul, for it, as for Brahmanism, was a 
temporary emanation from the infinite substance. Conse- 
quently, it solved the problem of the future life by the 
return of this particle of light to its home, by the absorp- 
tion of the part in the great Whole. 

The Hindu has at once less and more ambition than the 
Jew, the Mussulman, and the Christian. The latter hope 
to live again after death, and behold God face to face ; the 
former consents to lose all individual existence on condition 
of becoming God himself. 

We lay emphasis upon this moral history of India, be- 
cause, in the first place, its political history is not known ; 
and because, in the second, that country has been the main 
reservoir of philosophical and religious ideas, which, start- 
ing thence, have taken their course in different directions. 
The Brahmans, like the priests of Egypt, could well say to 
the Greeks: "You are children." Who would affirm that 
no echo of those great collisions of ideas of which India was 
the theatre, of those philosophical and religious controver- 
sies, of that peculiar organization of Buddhist churches 
which were animated by an ardent proselyting spirit, did 
not reach the commercial cities of the Asiatic coast, where 
Hellenic civilization had its awakening, and even as far as 
that great city of Alexandria whither the Ptolemies caused 
the books of the nations to be brought and translated? 

Against Buddhism the most terrible persecution finally 
arose. "Let the Buddhists be exterminated," cried the 
Brahmans, "from the bridge of Rama (Ceylon) to the snow- 
whitened Himalayas ! Whoever spares the child or the old 
man, shall himself be put to death." Persecution was suc- 
cessful in India, which returned to the Brahmans; but 
Buddhism spread into Thibet, which is its stronghold 
to-day, and into Mongolia, China, Indo-China, and Ceylon. 
In those countries it still numbers multitudes of believers, 
very few of whom, it is true, know and practise the pure 
doctrine of Gautama. 

From this brief history it is evident that, if India has 
acted little, she has thought much. Let us add that the 
country is covered with imposing monuments of great ele- 
gance, of which we as yet are acquainted only with a small 
part. In thought, poetry, and art, India has developed 
three of the glories of Greece. 



24 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 5000. 



IV 

EGYPT 

First Inhabitants. — Herodotus said of a part of Egypt, 
"It is a gift of the Nile." The same might be said of the 
whole country, for without the periodical inundations of 
that river the desert would cover everything which was not 
hidden under the water. 

This country is certainly not the one where the first 
civilized society was formed. Nevertheless, its history, 
explicit as to a very great number of facts and persons, 
covers seventy centuries. Before the Persians conquered 
it (527 B.C.), it had already been ruled by twenty-six 
dynasties. The names and acts of many of its sovereigns 
are carved on the monuments with which they covered 
Egypt. To the fourth king of the first dynasty we may 
attribute the step pyramid of Saccara, whose worn and 
crumbling stones seem to support with diificulty the weight 
of the centuries accumulated upon its head. 

The first inhabitants of Egypt did not come from the 
south, descending the Nile, as was long supposed, but from 
the north, via the Isthmus of Suez. They belong to the 
race personified in Genesis under the name of Ham, and 
called by the Arabs " the Red " from the color of their com- 
plexion. This race appears to have formed, under the name 
of Cushites, the basis of the population all along the shore 
of the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea. 
These Cushites founded small states, which doubtless 
existed for long centuries before a powerful chief, Menes, 
subdued the whole valley from the sea to the cataracts of 
Syene, and founded, at least five thousand years before our 
era, the first royal race. To account for this unknown 
period and for the revolution in which it ended, it was said 
that at first the gods had reigned, then the demi-gods, that 
is, the priests, their representatives, and that the latter had 
been forced to yield their power to a warrior chieftain. 

First Dynasties (5000 years b.c). — Little is known of 
the first three dynasties, whose sway, eight centuries in 




t^l'irlgkl, KS. I.) T. V. C 



B.C. 5000-2200.] EGYPT 25 

duration, reached the peninsula of Sinai, where on a rock 
the name of one of their princes has been found, who 
worked the copper mines in the peninsula. Under the 
fourth we behold all the marvels of a civilization then un- 
paralleled. Art then reached such development as the 
most brilliant periods will hardly surpass. What space of 
time must have elapsed between the day when the first man 
was cast naked upon the earth with the instincts of a wild 
animal, and that day six thousand years ago, which saw 
the admirable statue of Chephren come forth from the 
hands of an Egyptian Phidias, the pyramids of Gizeh rise, 
and a great monarchical society formed with a strong 
political and religious organization? The paintings or the 
inscriptions of temples and tombs recall to us its industry, 
its commerce, its agriculture, and all the bloom of its vigor- 
ous youth. So early did Egypt enjoy all the art and science 
which it ever possessed, and subsequent centuries found 
themselves able to teach it little. 

The most celebrated members of the sixth dynasty are a 
conqueror, Apapu, and a queen, Nitocris. Manetho calls 
the latter " the rosy-cheeked Beauty, " and says that in order 
to avenge her brother, she invited the persons guilty of his 
murder to a banquet in a subterranean chamber, into which 
the waters of the Nile were suddenly admitted. 

From the sixth to the eleventh dynasty, monuments are 
rare, and consequently history is silent. Great calamities 
must have befallen the country during this period. When 
the light reappears, we find royalty banished to the The- 
baid, whence it emerged in triumph with the kings of the 
twelfth dynasty, who restored to Egypt its natural bounda- 
ries, and began the great struggle against the Ethiopians. 
One of the family constructed an artificial reservoir, cover- 
ing sixty-three square miles, and called Lake Moeris, to 
regulate the overflow on the left bank of the Nile. 

Invasion of the Hyksos or Shepherds (2200 b.c). — A 
horde of shepherds, without doubt crowded westward by 
some great movement of humanity in Assyria, penetrated 
into the valley of the Nile by the Isthmus of Suez and sub- 
jugated the Delta and Middle Egypt. Their kings, who 
formed the seventeenth or Hyksos dynasty, established 
themselves at Memphis, and fortified the town of Avaris or 
Plusium at the entrance of the Delta in order to prevent 
other nomads from following in their footsteps. Appar- 



26 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 1750-1288. 

ently it was one of these kings whom Joseph served as 
minister. After having reigned for five hundred years, the 
Hyksos were at last defeated by the kings of Thebes, and 
gradually forced back to the very walls of Pelusium. 
Ahmes I. succeeded in driving them thence, and the greater 
part of the nation quitted Egypt. Nevertheless to this day, 
in the vicinity of Lake Menzaleh, men of robust limbs and 
angular features are to be found, who may be descendants 
of the Shepherds. 

Prosperity of Egjrpt from the Eighteenth to the Thirteenth 
Century. — The expulsion of the Hyksos was followed by 
prosperity that lasted for more than five hundred years. 
Thanks to the protecting deserts and its strong political 
organization, Egypt again developed a brilliant civilization 
which the greatest men of Greece came to study. This epoch 
begins with the princes of the eighteenth dynasty (1703- 
1462): Ahmes the Liberator; Thothmes I., who commem- 
orated his victories by columns on the banks of the Euphrates 
and Nile ; the regent Hatasu, whose exploits the temple of 
Deir-el-Bahari at Thebes hands down; Thothmes III., the 
conqueror of western Asia and of the Soudan, " who set the 
frontiers of Egypt wherever he pleased," as says the author 
of a heroic song carved on a pillar in the Museum of Boulaq ; 
Amenophis III., the Memnon of the Greeks, the King of 
the Speaking Statue, which at sunrise saluted Aurora, his 
divine mother. In the tomb of the mother of Ahmes a 
veritable treasure of precious stones of the rarest workman- 
ship has been found. 

This good fortune continued under the princes of the 
nineteenth dynasty (1462-1288), several of whom rendered 
the name Kameses glorious. Seti I., after having carried 
his arms as far as Armenia, built the pillared hall of Karnak, 
a masterpiece of Egyptian architecture. He even opened 
from the Nile to the Red Sea a canal, vestiges of which can 
still be discerned, and on the arid road to the gold mines of 
Gebel Atoky he dug a well, which must be called artesian, 
since the water spouted from it. His successor, Rameses II., 
is the Sesostris to whom the Greeks have ascribed all the 
conquests of those ancient kings. He was indeed a warlike 
prince. Columns found near Beirout, and a whole poem 
carved on a wall of Karnak, still attest his achievements. 
He was above all a great builder. He erected the two 
temples of Ipsamboul, the Ramesseum of Thebes, and the 



B.C. 1288-665.] EGYPT 27 

obelisks of Luxor, one of which, a granite monolith seventy- 
seven feet high, covered with inscriptions in his honor, is 
the central monument of the Place de la Concorde in Paris. 
He compelled his captives to work on these monuments. 
The Israelites, scattered in great numbers over Lower 
Egypt, were treated as slaves. They were forced to labor 
in the quarries, to make bricks, and construct embankments 
to protect the cities from inundation. The oppression of 
their taskmasters fired the slaves with resolution. Under 
Meneptah the Hebrews departed from Egypt. The tomb of 
this Pharaoh is still to be seen in the valley of Bab-el-Moluk. 

Decline of Egypt. Invasion of the Ethiopians. — The 
twentieth dynasty (1288-1110) begins with a great king, 
Rameses III., who represented on the magnificent temple 
of Medinet Abu at Thebes his exploits in Syria and the 
Soudan. After him came the decline. Egypt had become 
enfeebled in attempting to expand. Instead of remaining 
upon the banks of her sacred river, wherein was her 
strength, and in the midst of the deserts which gave her 
security, she sought to subdue Asia and the country of the 
Cushites and Libyans, and even the great island of Cyprus. 
She desired to control the sea. When indolent kings suc- 
ceeded the glorious Pharaohs, priestly intrigue seated the 
high priest of Ammon upon the throne of Thebes, while 
another dynasty, the twenty-first, reigned at Tanis in the 
Delta. Thus divided, Egypt submitted to the influence of 
neighboring peoples instead of imposing her own. Her 
kings assumed Assyrian names, gave princesses of their 
blood to Solomon's harem, and surrounded themselves with 
a Libyan guard, which portioned out the country among its 
chiefs. The Cushites or Ethiopians took advantage of these 
discords to seize Upper Egypt. Sabaco, their prince, even 
captured King Bocchoris and burned him alive. " The vile 
race of Cushites," as the twenty -fifth dynasty, reigned for 
fifty years over all the land of the Pharaohs (715-655). 
Among their kings are Sebichus or Sua, whom Uzziah 
invoked against Shalmaneser, and Tharaka, who helped 
Hezekiah against Sennacherib. According to Manetho, a 
revolution drove the third successor of Sabaco back to 
Ethiopia. The leaders of this movement were natives of 
Sais and founded the twenty-sixth dynasty. 

The Last Pharaohs. — Herodotus thus narrates the expul- 
sion of the Ethiopians ; " The last of the Ethiopian kings 



28 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 700-a.d. 381. 

was terrified by a dream, and fled to his native states, leav- 
ing the government of the country to the priest Sethos. 
At his death the warriors seized the supreme power and 
intrusted it to twelve of their number. Psammeticus, one 
of the twelve, overthrew his colleagues by means of Carian 
and Ionian pirates. Realizing the military superiority of 
the Greeks, he invited them in great numbers to the coun- 
try, and thereby angered the native army, part of which 
emigrated to Ethiopia. Aided by the newcomers, he tried 
to recover Syria, and for twenty-eight years besieged Azoth, 
which he finally captured." Necho, his successor, attempted 
to complete Seti's canal and unite the Red Sea and Mediter- 
ranean. He caused the Phoenicians to circumnavigate 
Africa, and defeated Josiah, king of Judah, at Mageddo. 
Master of Palestine, he pushed on to the Euphrates, but 
was defeated by the Babylonians and lost all his conquests. 
The second of his successors, Apries, likewise failed in his 
attempts against the Cyrenians. His soldiers, believing 
themselves betrayed, installed in his place Amasis, one of 
their own number, under whom Egypt emitted a final gleam 
of brilliancy. Twenty thousand cities are then said to have 
covered the borders of the Nile. This prince gave the city 
of Naucratis to the Greeks, and entered into close relations 
with the Median, Lydian, and Babylonian kings, who were 
themselves menaced by a fresh invasion of the barbarous 
Persian mountaineers. He could not avert their ruin, and 
beheld the successive fall of Astyages, Crcesus, and Bal- 
thasar. The same fate awaited his own son, Psammeticus 
III., who, after a reign of six months, was overthrown by 
the Persian Cambyses (527). 

Eg^ypt under the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the 
Arabs. — Since that day Egypt has never been independent, 
though often rebelling against the yoke of foreigners. An 
unruly province of Persia, she was conquered by Alexander, 
who founded the famous city which bears his name (331). 
The dynasty of the Ptolemies reigned gloriously for a cen- 
tury, and ingloriously twice as long. The Romans took 
their place after the death of Cleopatra (30 b.c). In 
381 A.D. an edict of Theodosius suppressed the religion of 
the Pharaohs. The temples were mutilated, the statues of 
the gods destroyed, and of one of the richest civilizations 
of the world nothing was left except the ruins, which at the 
present day we piously preserve. 



A.D. 640-1880.] EGYPT 29 

Egypt, thus violently forced into Christianity, remained 
nominally Christian for two centuries and a half without 
finding peace. The Arabs brought Islam (640). It took 
definite root, and under the Fatimite caliphs the land en- 
joyed a brief splendor. Cairo, a city which they founded, 
still contains the largest Mussulman school in the world. 
Thrice has France touched the land, always leaving glorious 
recollections of herself: in the thirteenth century with Saint 
Louis ; in the eighteenth with Bonaparte ; in the nineteenth 
with Frenchmen who conquered Egypt by their science and 
opened to the commerce of the globe the Isthmus of Suez, 
thus grandly realizing the dream of a Pharaoh who had been 
dead thirty-five centuries ! 

Egyptian Religion, Government, and Art. — Two religions 
existed side by side, the one held by the people and the 
other by the priests. The former was coarse and material. 
It regarded certain animals, the ichneumon, ibis, crocodile, 
hippopotamus, cat, bull, and many more, as divine beings. 
It was the old African fetichism, though elevated by theo- 
gonic ideas, as is shown by those gods with the head of a 
dog or falcon, and by the worship of the bull Apis, ** en- 
gendered by a flash of lightning." The latter religion 
sought to account for the mysterious phenomena of nature, 
and explained the good and evil encountered everywhere by 
the opposition of two principles as Osiris, the representative 
of all beneficent influences, and Typhon, the god of night 
and of evil days. It even seems at first to have taught 
belief in one God without beginning or end. The care 
taken by the Egyptians to preserve the bodies of the dead 
proves that they hoped for a future life. The inscriptions 
even speak of numerous rebirths, which recall the metemp- 
sychosis of the Hindus. But this idea of the absolute and 
eternal Being was veiled from the eyes of the people and 
the priests by the conception of a divine trinity, — Osiris 
or the sun, the principle of all life, Isis or nature, and 
Horus, their divine child. After once abandoning pure 
monotheism, the Egyptians glided rapidly down the 
descent of polytheism. The representations on their 
monuments and in their religious rites of a host of 
secondary divinities made them forget the chief god, 
of whose attributes the others had at first been merely 
symbols. 

The government was a monarchy, all the stronger because 



30 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST 

its kings, according to common belief, were participants of 
divinity. All were " Sons of the Sun," and in that capacity 
were chiefs of religion as well as of society. 

Society had neither a sacerdotal nor aristocratic caste, 
nor a popular body which might form a counterpoise to 
the king. This state of affairs ended in the establishment 
of a certain number of classes, which were non-hereditary, 
but in which the son habitually remained in the father's 
state of life. Herodotus enumerated seven of these classes : 
priests, warriors, laborers, herdsmen, merchants, mariners, 
and, after Psammeticus, interpreters. There were, no 
doubt, many others. "Egypt," says Bossuet, "was the 
source of all good police regulation." We read in Diodorus 
that perjury was punished with death ; that he who did not 
succor a man engaged in combat with an assassin, suffered 
the same penalty; that the slanderer was punished. Every 
Egyptian was obliged to deposit with a magistrate a docu- 
ment setting forth his means of livelihood, and a severe 
penalty discouraged false statements. The tongue of the 
spy, who betrayed state secrets to enemies, and both hands 
of counterfeiters, were cut off. In no case was accumulated 
interest allowed to exceed the capital; the property of the 
debtor, not his person, constituted the security for his debt. 
An Egyptian could borrow, giving his father's mummy as 
surety, and he who did not pay his debt was deprived of 
burial with his family. 

The Egyptians successfully cultivated many industrial 
arts, as well as mechanics, geometry, and astronomy. 
They invented hieroglyphic writing, whose characters, at 
first simple figurative representations of objects or symbols 
of certain ideas, were completed by phonetic signs, which 
like our letters and syllables stood only for sounds. In 
painting they employed vivid colors, which time has not 
effaced. Some of their finest statues might rival those of 
Greece, did not a certain stiffness indicate a conventional 
art wherein liberty was lacking; but their architecture is 
unrivalled in its grand impressiveness. In proof are the 
temples of Thebes; the hall of Karnak, where the vault 
is supported by 140 colossal columns, many of which are 
seventy feet high and eleven feet in diameter; and the 
pyramids, one of which, 481 feet in height, is the most 
tremendous pile of stone ever heaped up by man. Further 
demonstration is furnished by the obelisks, the rock tombs, 



EGYPT 31 

the labyrinth, the enormous Sphinx, which measures twenty- 
six feet from the chin to the crown of the head, the dikes, 
the highways, the canals to contain or guide the waters of 
the Nile, and Lake Moeris. No people in ancient times 
moved so much earth and granite. 



32 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 1200-606. 



THE ASSYRIANS 

The Tigris and the Euphrates. Babylon and Nineveh. — 

From the mountains of Armenia descend two rivers, the 
Tigris and the Euphrates, whose sources lie near each other, 
and which, after uniting their waters, fall into the Persian 
Gulf. These two rivers embrace in their course a vast 
tract of country, mountainous on the north and flat and 
sandy in the centre and south, to which the general name 
of Mesopotamia is applied. Its first inhabitants were : in 
Chaldaea, or the southern part, those Cushites with whom 
we are already acquainted ; toward the mountains, Turanian 
tribes, which perhaps made the great Hyksos invasion 
along the banks of the Nile ; in the centre, Semitic peoples 
of a white race whose origin is unknown, but who are 
famous in history as the Assyrians, Hebrews, Arabs, and 
Phoenicians. 

In this country rose two splendid cities, Babylon on the 
Euphrates and Nineveh on the Tigris, each in turn the 
capital of the Assyrian Empire. Nothing in antiquity is 
so celebrated as Babylon, whose walls measured a circuit 
of twenty leagues, and rose three or four hundred feet high. 
The Chaldaean priests ascribed to it an antiquity of four 
hundred thousand years, but Genesis fixes its foundation 
within the historical period, where also it places the origin 
of the Hebrews. It ascribes the building of Babylon to 
Nimrod, the mighty hunter. His descendants reigned there 
until the time of the great Iranian migration, which bore 
one body of Aryans toward the Indus, and another to the 
middle of Persia. Those who took the latter direction 
arrived at Babylon, but did not rule there long, and Assyria 
reverted to her first masters. The Pharaohs of the eigh- 
teenth dynasty held her in subjection for more than two 
centuries, and Arab chiefs, as their vassals, reigned on the 
banks of the Euphrates. When the decline of Egypt began 
with the twentieth dynasty, the Assyrian princes freed 



B.C. 1200-606.] THE ASSYBIANS 33 

themselves, and became conquerors in turn. All the coun- 
try between the Euphrates and the Lebanon recognized their 
sway. On the east of the Tigris, Media became their vassal 
province. If we are to believe the Chaldean priest Berosus, 
they penetrated to Bactriana and India. The monuments 
begin to give us certain information only with the ferocious 
Assurnazirpal and his son, Shalmaneser, whose war against 
the Hebrews and whose victory over Hosea, king of Israel, 
are recorded in the Bible. A successor of these princes had 
for his queen Semiramis, who was left at his death sole 
mistress of the empire. She enlarged Babylon, constructed 
quays and hanging gardens, and surrounded the city with 
a wall forty-two miles long and broad enough for six chariots 
to pass abreast on top. 

Sardanapalus was the last sovereign of the first Assyrian 
Empire. His excesses and effeminate life encouraged the 
Chaldaean Phul and the Median Arbaces to rebel. Not dis- 
couraged by four successive defeats, they succeeded finally 
in imprisoning the king in Nineveh. Rather than sur- 
render, Sardanapalus caused a funeral pyre to be prepared, 
and flung himself into it with his wives and treasures. 
Nineveh was destroyed (789). 

Second Assyrian Empire. — The Medes had regained their 
independence, and the Babylonians ruled over Assyria. 
His victory rendered Phul, their leader, sufiiciently strong 
to resume the wars of the Ninevite kings against the nations 
west of the Euphrates, and to compel Menahem, king of 
Judah, to pay tribute. At his death, the Assyrians rebelled 
under Tiglathpileser, a descendant of their ancient kings, 
who conquered Babylon and set up a second Assyrian 
Empire (744 B.C.). The distant expeditions of this prince 
from Palestine to the Indus, the victory of Sargon at Rapha 
over the Ethiopian, Sabaco, the successes of Sennacherib, 
who rebuilt Nineveh (707), of Esarhaddon (681), who con- 
quered Egypt, and of a new Sardanapalus, who subdued 
Asia Minor, show the might of the new empire. But it 
fell, like the first, before a coalition of the Babylonians 
and Medes. Sarac, its last king, following the example of 
Sardanapalus, threw himself and his treasures upon a funeral 
pile, and the victors, entering Nineveh, utterly destroyed 
the detested city (606). Wiped from the face of the earth 
for twenty-four centuries, no one knew even the site of its 
famous temples, when suddenly it reappeared in the world. 



34 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 58^-330. 

with its arts, its language, its customs, its civilization, all 
rescued from oblivion and attested by its numerous bas- 
reliefs and sculptures, which the Frenchman Botta dis- 
covered in 1844 at Mosoul, and which can now be wondered 
at in the Louvre. 

Last Assyrian Empire. Capture of Babylon by Cyrus. — 
Babylon replaced Nineveh. Nebuchadnezzar, its king, won 
a glorious victory over the Egyptian Necho at Circesium. 
He destroyed Jerusalem (588), took Tyre after a siege of 
thirteen years, traversed Egypt as a conqueror, and adorned 
Babylon with magnificent monuments. His four successors 
reigned shamefully. Cyrus, king of the Persians, besieged 
Babylon and entered it by the bed of the Euphrates, which 
he had diverted from its channel (538). Instead of destroy- 
ing the city, he made it one of his capitals. So did Alex- 
ander. The construction of Seleucia caused its abandonment 
by the Greek kings. To-day nothing is to be seen on the 
spot which it occupied except a heap of ruins, upon which 
the Arab rarely plants his tent, and which furnish a lair 
for the beasts of the desert. When the Parthians, and 
afterwards the Persians, raised the great Oriental Empire 
which the Romans were unable to overthrow, Ctesiphon 
was their royal residence. Each new sovereign authority 
gave birth to a new capital. Under the Arabian caliphs 
Bagdad was the queen of the Orient. It is still one of the 
great cities of the heir of the caliphs, the sultan of Con- 
stantinople. 

Government, Religion, and Arts of Assyria. — The king of 
Nineveh or of Babylon was the absolute master of the life 
and possessions of his subjects. Such is the law of oriental 
monarchies. At least, on the banks of the Tigris and the 
Euphrates, the king was not considered a deity, as on the 
banks of the Nile. Neither were there any castes, nor even 
a hierarchy of classes. Assyrian society was that sort of 
promiscuous mass which is not displeasing to despotism, 
because it permits the prince to raise or degrade whomso- 
ever he sees fit. 

At the base of the religion of these peoples, the idea of 
a single God can be descried; but there also this idea was 
concealed by a throng of secondary divinities, who are 
always the personification of some force of nature. In 
those immense plains of Chaldsea, where the horizon ex- 
tends so far, under that cloudless sky, and during those 



B.C. 900-538.] THE ASSYRIANS 35 

nights which the Orient makes so beautiful, because the 
stars shine there with a brilliancy unknown to us, the 
dominating worship was Sabianism, or the adoration of 
the stars. The sun, Baal, was the great god of the Assyr- 
ians, and in the celestial bodies they located spirits which 
exercised upon man and upon his destiny a powerful influ- 
ence. Thus their priests had a great reputation as astrono- 
mers. To them we owe the zodiac, the division of the 
circle into 360 degrees, and that of the degree into sixty 
minutes, the calculation of lunar eclipses, the so-called 
table of Pythagoras, and a system of measures, weights, 
and money which served nearly all the commerce of the 
ancient world, since it was employed by the Phoenicians 
and the ancient Greeks. To them also we owe astrology, 
whereby they developed a lucrative trade through the sale 
of talismans or consecrated signs, supposed to give their 
possessors magical powers. The common people found 
the objects of their adoration nearer at hand. They had 
fish gods, like Oannes and Derceto, or bird gods, like the 
doves which typified Semiramis. The worship of Mylitta, 
the goddess of generation and fecundity, gave rise to 
abominable disorders by sanctifying the grossest sensual 
appetites. 

The inhabitants, by their industry, their skilful agricul- 
ture, and their commerce, which two magnificent rivers 
favored, accumulated prodigious riches in this empire, so 
long the rival of the empire of the Pharaohs. The carpets 
of Babylon, its textile fabrics, its enamelled potteries, its 
amulets and canes, and its thousand objects of the gold- 
smith's art, were in great demand, even in the Eoman 
Empire. The Assyrian sculptures reveal a degree of skill 
hardly suspected. Herodotus, visiting Egypt in the time 
of its full splendor, believed that the Greeks had derived 
their art and gods from the banks of the Nile. We now 
know that in the depths of Asia the origin of their religious 
ideas must be sought. Probably through Cilicia and Asia 
Minor Assyrian art reached the Greek Asiatic colonies, and 
from them awoke the genius of artists in the mother coun- 
try. More than one sculpture at Athens recalls forms on 
the monuments of Khorsabad. The figures of Selinus, and 
even in a certain degree the marbles of Egina, seem to have 
been touched by the Ninevites. 



36 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 1500. 



VI 

THE PHCBNICIANS 

Phoenician Cities between Lebanon and the Sea. — Be- 
tween the Euphrates and the western sea stretch the desert, 
which belonged to the Semitic nomads, and the Lebanon, 
the fertile valleys of which became the habitation of numer- 
ous Canaanitish tribes who originally occupied the shores 
of the Persian Gulf. The Phoenicians, near kinsmen of the 
Hebrews, the most famous of all these tribes, established 
themselves in the country of the Jordan, and on the farther 
side of the mountain chain on the narrow strip of coast 
which is bathed by the Mediterranean. The conquests of 
Joshua gave the valley of the Jordan to the Hebrews. 
Hemmed in between the mountains, whose venerable forests 
furnished the timber for the construction of ships, and the 
sea, which formed numerous harbors and invited to naviga- 
tion and commerce, the Phoenicians became skilful mariners, 
both from necessity and natural situation. Their ships 
ploughed the Mediterranean. Population increased with 
general prosperity, and cities multiplied. Soon, both for 
the interests of commerce and to relieve the congestion of 
population, it became necessary to plant colonies at a dis- 
tance. The most widely known of Phoenician cities were 
Sidon, whose glassware and purple were celebrated; Tyre, 
which held the highest rank; Aradus, Byblos, and Berytus. 
We learn from Holy Writ what luxury and effeminacy and 
what an impure and often sanguinary religion reigned in 
Phoenicia. Mothers burned their children alive in honor 
of Baal-Moloch, and the utmost license was approved by 
their chief goddess, Astarte. 

Phoenician Commerce and Colonies. — But the Phoenicians 
offset their vices by industry and commerce, and above all 
by those colonies which so contributed to the expansion and 
progress of civilization. They established themselves in 
the -^gean islands long before the Greeks ; founded count- 
ing-houses in Africa, Spain, Gaul, and Sicily ; and profited 



B.C. 1500-332.] THE PHCENICIANS 37 

by the commerce of Arabia, India, and Ethiopia. In the 
fifth century they still possessed in Sicily the three cities 
of Motya, Selinus and Panormus. In Gaul the traces of 
their settlement vanished early, but they covered the whole 
south of Spain, then so rich in silver mines, with their 
colonies. On the African coast rose Leptis, Adrumetum, 
Utica, and Carthage, the new Tyre, which became the most 
powerful maritime state of antiquity, and forced the neigh- 
boring Phoenician colonies to acknowledge its supremacy. 
While Carthage thus monopolized the commerce of the 
western Mediterranean, the Phoenicians of the mother 
country shared with the Greeks that of the eastern Mediter- 
ranean, and endeavored to form closer relations with the 
countries washed by the Indian Ocean. They forced the 
Jews to cede to them two ports on the Red Sea, Eliath and 
Eziongeber, whence their fleets sailed to seek ivory and 
gold dust in the land of Ophir, incense and spices in Arabia 
Eelix, the most beautiful pearls then known in the Persian 
Gulf, and in India a thousand precious wares. For them 
numerous caravans traversed Babylonia, Arabia, Persia, 
Bactriana, and Thibet, whence they brought back the silk 
of China, which sold for its weight in gold, the furs of 
Tartary, and the precious stones of India. They added to 
this commerce the products of their national industry in 
glass, purple, and a thousand articles of attire. 

Conquerors of Phoenicia. — This prosperity of Phoenicia 
excited the cupidity of invaders. She was conquered by 
the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty. The Assyrians 
many times appeared under the walls of Tyre, which was 
taken by Sennacherib, almost ruined by Nebuchadnezzar, 
and destroyed by Alexander. Phoenicia found herself al- 
most lost in the vast empires of the Persians, the Seleucidae, 
and the Romans ; but, placed between two great centres of 
civilization, Egypt and Assyria, she took from them and 
carried to the West whatever they had best developed. She 
diffused something of the art, the industry, the science, of 
those two nations. Above all she took from Babylon a 
metric system, the necessary agent of commerce, and from 
Memphis the idea and form of alphabetical writing, which 
so many peoples have copied and modified, and which has 
been tlie indispensable instrument of intellectual progress. 



38 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 1490. 



VII 

THE HEBREWS 

Ancient Traditions. — At the head of their race, the He- 
brews place Abraham, who came from Chaldsea, perhaps 
two thousand years before Christ, and settled in the land of 
Canaan; Isaac, son of the patriarch; and Jacob, the father 
of twelve sons, whose posterity formed the twelve tribes of 
Israel. The touching story is well known of Joseph, one 
of the twelve, whom his brethren sold to Egyptian mer- 
chants. By dint of wisdom and tact the Hebrew slave at- 
tained the highest honors, became the minister of a Pharaoh, 
and called to him his family, whom he established in the 
land of Goshen between the Nile and the Red Sea. 

In this fertile district the Hebrews multiplied without 
mixing with the Egyptians, who eventually looked upon 
this foreign race with distrust, and treated them like the 
captives brought back by the Pharaohs from their distant 
conquests. They tried to compel them to abandon pastoral 
life and to shut themselves up in cities. They forced them 
to build the cities of Rameses, Pithon, and On; they made 
them work on the canals and on the constructions of every 
sort with which Egypt was being, covered. The Israelite 
traditions assert that, in order to diminish their numbers, 
which increased in spite of every hardship, the Pharaohs 
commanded that all male infants should be killed at birth. 
An Israelitish woman of the tribe of Levi, after having 
hidden her child for three months, exposed it on the Nile 
in a basket of bulrushes at the spot where the daughter of 
Pharaoh was in the habit of bathing. The princess heard 
the cries of the infant and took pity on it. He was called 
Moses, or the " drawn out," because he had been drawn from 
the waters. He was reared by his adopted mother in the 
royal palace, and instructed in all the learning of the Egyp- 
tian priests. However, his own mother had revealed to 
him his origin, and one day he killed an Egyptian whom 
he saw beating a Hebrew. Forced to flight by this murder. 



Thapsacus ^ 




Ei.gr,iv«lbyC«llo.., 



B.C. 1490.] THE HEBREWS 39 

he escaped to Jethro, in the extreme south of Arabia Petraea, 
where he found again the ancient belief of his fathers, pure 
and simple manners, and the patriarchal life of Abraham 
and Jacob. He returned to Egypt, resolved to deliver his 
people " from the house of bondage, " and led the Hebrews 
back to the desert with their herds. 

Religious and Civil Legislation. — They wandered long in 
the solitudes of Arabia, where the majesty of the one God 
everywhere is revealed. Mount Sinai was consecrated by 
the promulgation of the civil and religious law, and Moses 
tried to chain his people to the precious dogma of the one- 
ness of God by numerous ordinances which imparted to the 
Hebrew laws an incomparable superiority over every system 
of legislation. Instead of the distinction of castes, which 
moreover cannot be enforced in the desert, the Hebrews 
had the equality of citizens before God, before the law, 
and, in a certain measure, before fortune. In the sabbatical 
year, and at the jubilee which occurred, the one at the end 
of every seven years, the other at the end of forty-nine 
years, the slave was emancipated, debt was outlawed, and 
alienated property was restored to its former owner. The 
leaders of the Jews sprang from the people. If their priest- 
hood became hereditary, inasmuch as always restricted to 
the tribe of Levi, the priests possessed only the inheritance 
of poverty. In the ancient world society reposed on slavery, 
but the Jews had servants rather than slaves. Elsewhere 
the legislator disregarded the poor and repelled the stranger. 
Here the law distinguished in favor of the poor. It pro- 
hibited usury, enjoined alms, prescribed charity, even toward 
animals, and was kindly to the stranger. Thus everything 
which the ancient world degraded and rejected, the Mosaic 
law exalted. In this society, the stranger was no longer 
an enemy, the slave was still a man, and woman took her 
seat worthily beside the head of the family, enjoying the 
same respect. 

Moral Grandeur of Hebrew Legislation. — In the Deca- 
logue, or summary of the entire moral code, human and 
divine, in ten commandments, we read : " Thou shalt have 
none other gods before me." "Honor thy father and thy 
mother that thy days may be long." "Thou shalt not 
steal. " " Thou shalt not kill. " " Thou shalt not bear false 
witness against thy neighbor." "Thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbor's house . . . nor anything that is thy neighbor's." 



40 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 1097. 

In the law we find these beautiful and touching precepts : 
"Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil." " Ye shall 
not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict 
them in any wise, and they cry at all under me, I will 
surely hear their cry." " Thou shalt not oppress a stranger : 
for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers 
in the land of Egypt." "Six years thou shalt sow thy 
land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof : but the seventh 
year thou shalt let it rest and lie still ; that the poor of thy 
people may eat : and what they leave the beasts of the field 
shall eat." " When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou 
shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field . . . neither 
slialt thou gather every grape of thy vineyards ; thou shalt 
leave them for the poor and stranger." " The wages of him 
that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the 
morning." "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
" Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the 
face of the old man." " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when 
he treadeth out the corn." "Thou shalt not seethe a kid 
in his mother's milk." 

Conquest of Palestine. The Judges. The Kings (1097 b.c). 
— Moses wished his people to return to the land which 
Abraham had chosen wherein to pitch his tent. Joshua, 
his successor, crossed the Jordan, destroyed Jericho, and 
divided the land of Canaan among the twelve tribes of 
Israel. 

At his death the political bond broke which held the tribes 
together, and the government of the elders was too feeble to 
complete the conquest of the country or to repulse the 
attacks of neighboring kings. Hence ensued periods of 
servitude, from which the Hebrews were rescued by strong 
and brave men, who after the victory remained their 
judges, thus erecting in the midst of this patriarchal re- 
public a sort of temporary monarchy. These heroes of 
Israel were Othniel; Ehud, who fought with both hands; 
Shamgar; the prophetess Deborah; Gideon, who scattered 
a whole army with three hundred men; Jephthah, who 
immolated his daughter in order to fulfil a rash vow; Sam- 
son, celebrated for his prodigious strength ; the high priest 
Eli, under whom the Philistines captured the Ark of the 
Covenant, wherein was kept the book of the law; and, 
lastly, Samuel, who, despite his wise and just administra- 
tion, was forced by the Hebrews to give them a king. 



B.C. 1019.] THE HEBREWS 41 

He chose Saul, a valiant man of the tribe of Benjamin, 
who seemed simple-minded and docile. He poured the holy 
oil of consecration on the head of the new prince, and de- 
posited in the Ark a book wherein he had written down 
the rights and duties of the kingly office (1097 b.c). At first 
Saul justified the prophet's choice by his moderation and 
victories. But rendered proud by success, he abandoned 
his rustic habits, surrounded himself by a body-guard of 
three thousand men, and shook off the yoke of the high 
priest. Samuel secretly anointed David, a Hebrew shep- 
herd, and introduced him into the palace, that some day he 
might install him in the place of the unruly prince. The 
young shield-bearer of the king attracted the attention of 
all Israel by slaying the Philistine Goliath. Saul, consumed 
by jealousy, made several attempts to slay him with his 
javelin. When he himself fell in 1058 in a battle against 
the Philistines, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and a 
few years later the other ten tribes, recognized David as 
king of Israel. 

For the time being no danger threatened from Egypt and 
Assyria. The little Hebrew state was able to develop and 
extend without encountering too formidable adversaries. 
Palestine, which had so often been the road of the con- 
querors, became a conqueror in her turn. The capture of 
Sion or Jerusalem, the destruction of the Philistines and 
the Moabites, numerous successes over all other neighbor- 
ing peoples, territorial extension of the kingdom as far as 
the Euphrates on the north and as far as the Red Sea on the 
south, set forth in David the victorious prince. His regu- 
lations for worship, for the public administration, for jus- 
tice, for the establishment of a numerous army, one-tenth 
of which was always under arms, and, lastly, the materials 
which he collected for the building of the temple, and the 
treaties of commerce concluded with Tyre, bear witness to 
his solicitude during peace. But a crime, the murder of 
Uriah, and the revolt of his son Absalom, saddened his last 
years. The Church still sings his sublime psalms. 

Solomon, a peaceful prince, fond of splendor and civiliza- 
tion, governed from the recesses of his palace like the other 
kings of the East. At his accession (1019) he consolidated 
his power by bloody acts, reduced the high priesthood to de- 
pendence upon the king, so as to emancipate the sovereign 
from all equal opposing authority, and built with magnifi- 



42 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 978-586, 

cence the temple at Jerusalem. He proved his wisdom 
by a famous decision, founded Palmyra in the heart of the 
desert, created a navy, and made alliances with Tyre and 
Egypt. His fame spread abroad, and the Queen of Sheba 
came to visit the great king of the East. But notwith- 
standing outward splendor, the provinces were being im- 
poverished, and Solomon himself destroyed the foundation 
of his power by introducing idolatry into his palace. The 
Idumgeans and Syrians revolted. His subjects rose in re- 
bellion because of the growing burden of taxation, and he 
died in the midst of public misery (978). 

The Schism and the Captivity. — His son, Rehoboam, re- 
fused to lessen the exactions of the royal treasury, and ten 
tribes seceded. Benjamin and Judah alone remained faith- 
ful to the house of David. From that time on there existed 
two nations, two kingdoms, Israel and Judah : Israel more 
populous, more extensive ; Judah richer and more respected. 
Every year all Jews were bound to bring their offerings to 
the temple at Jerusalem. To prevent his new subjects from 
going to settle in the kingdom of Judah, which possessed 
the national sanctuary, Jeroboam erected two altars, one at 
Bethel and one at Dan. Hither his people came to sacrifice. 
This violation of the religious law prepared Israel for the 
introduction of idolatry, the establishment of which was 
also favored by the constant relations of its kings with the 
Syrians. Judah showed more respect to the Mosaic law. 
But there also idolatry made its way, and for its expulsion 
prophets were needed, fired by the double inspiration of 
religion and patriotism. Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Micah, 
Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, by turns threatened and roused 
the Jews from despair by the promise of a glorious future. 

The separation of the Hebrew people into two kingdoms 
ruined its power. After the schism it possessed only Pales- 
tine. Surrounded by enemies, the Hebrews engaged also in 
bloody civil wars, and after deplorable anarchy succumbed 
under the attacks of the Babylonians. The kingdom of 
Israel fell in 721, when King Hoshea, captured in Samaria, 
was carried by Sargon to Nineveh. Judah fell in 586, when 
Zedekiah, captured by Nebuchadnezzar, was dragged to 
Babylon, loaded with chains, and had his eyes put out after 
he had seen all his sons and the leaders of his people slain 
before his face. 

The Jews under the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. 



B.C. 606-A.D. 10.] THE HEBREWS 43 

— The captivity, which dates from the first capture of 
Jerusalem (606 b.c.) lasted for seventy years, until the 
edict of Cyrus, who in 536 permitted the Hebrews to rebuild 
their Temple. Zerubbabel was accompanied by forty -two 
thousand Jews in his return to the ruins of the holy city. 
The work of construction, stopped under Cambyses through 
the jealousy of the Samaritans, was continued with ardor 
under Darius, who is, perhaps, the Ahasuerus of Scripture. 
In 516 the Temple was finished. Under Artaxerxes Longi- 
manus, Esdras conducted to Jerusalem another great com- 
pany of Jews, and brought the people back to the faithful 
observance of the Mosaic commands. About the same time 
Nehemiah again raised the walls of the city of David. 
Thus the nation had recovered its law, its Temple, its 
capital, and all the energy of its religious patriotism. 
Unfortunately, many persons, whom Esdras and Nehemiah 
expelled for lawlessness, took refuge with the Samaritans, 
and built upon Mount Gerizim a temple to rival that at 
Jerusalem. Judsea was generally quiet under the Persians. 
After the siege of Tyre Alexander came to Jerusalem to 
offer sacrifice in the Temple, and exempted the country from 
taxation during the sabbatical year. After his death the 
Jews remained for nearly a century subject to the kings of 
Egypt. Ptolemy II. Philadelphus even placed their sacred 
books in the famous library of Alexandria, having caused 
them to be translated by learned men, whose work has re- 
mained famous as the Septuagint Version. Ptolemy Philo- 
pator persecuted them ; so they passed gladly, though with 
no greater security, under the rule of the kings of Syria. 
Seleucus IV. sent his minister, Heliodorus, to strip the 
Temple of its riches, and Antigonus IV. placed upon the 
very altar the statue of Jupiter Olympius. 

This attempt to install Greek polytheism in the sanctuary 
of the only God brought about a formidable insurrection. . 
After being delivered by the heroic family of the Maccabees, 
the Jews endured the most cruel vicissitudes during two 
centuries, sometimes free under their own kings, sometimes 
subject to the Romans, often disturbed by the quarrels of 
the Pharisees and Sadducees, the two rival political and 
religious sects. In the time of Augustus they formed, 
under the cruel Herod, a flourishing state, whose existence 
Rome respected for several years. Then it was that Jesus 
was born, and four years before the death of Tiberius began 



44 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [a.d. 70. 

to preach his holy doctrine. The Jews, who had become 
Roman subjects, revolted during the last days of Nero. 
Thirteen hundred thousand men perished in that supreme 
struggle for fatherland and religion. Jerusalem was re- 
duced to ruins, the Temple was destroyed, and the disper- 
sion began (70 a.d.). 

The Jews, a stiff-necked people, as their prophets de- 
clared, did nothing for art, science, or industry, but their 
moral laws were the most elevated and their religious doc- 
trine the purest the world has seen. At the cost of cruel 
sufferings they preserved the priceless doctrine of divine 
unity. Their ancient law, transformed by Jesus, has be- 
come the law of charity and fraternal love which should 
govern mankind. 



B.C. 1500.] THE MEDES AND PERSIANS 45 



VIII 

THE MEDES AND PERSIANS 

Mazdeism. — We have seen that Bactriana and Sogdiana 
were the cradle of numerous white tribes which, under the 
name of Aryans, emigrated to the southeast toward the 
Indus, and under that of Iranians went toward Media and 
Persia. Perhaps a religious schism caused the separation 
of this great race. At all events, the Medes and Persians 
carried to their new country a doctrine which differed pro- 
foundly from that afterwards prevalent upon the banks of 
the Ganges. They recognized as their legislator Zoroaster, 
who seems to have lived fifteen centuries before Christ, and 
whose teachings are contained in the Avesta, or sacred book 
of the Persians. 

This doctrine, which is called Mazdeism, or universal 
knowledge, is the purest and mildest with which polytheis- 
tic antiquity was acquainted. Zervane Akerene, the first 
principle, eternal, infinite, immutable, immobile, created 
Ormazd, the lord of knowledge or wisdom, the source of 
light and of life like his emblem the sun, the author of all 
good, all justice, and Ahriman, his enemy, the principle of 
physical and moral evil. Each of them commands a hie- 
rarchy of celestial and infernal spirits who labor to extend 
the empire of their chief: the former by disseminating 
light, life, purity, happiness; the latter by multiplying 
malevolent animals and pernicious influences. But a day 
will come when Ahriman, finally vanquished, will recog- 
nize his defeat, and reascend to Ormazd to enjoy with him 
a life of blessedness, together with all the wicked who have 
been enticed by him into evil and whom suffering shall 
have purified. Thus the goodness of Ormazd is eternal and 
boundless; the wickedness of Ahriman is limited to the 
time of ordeals, which prepare for and justify redemption. 
The compassion of God, therefore, exceeds his justice, and 
the hell of the Persians was only a purgatory. 

Man, created with a free and immortal soul, is the prize 



46 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 1500. 

for which the two warring principles contend. As the 
devas of Ahriman ceaselessly urge him to evil, Zoroaster 
has given him the law of Ormazd to preserve him for the 
good. This law is humane and mild. It recognizes the 
rights of life while proclaiming those of heaven. It de- 
mands faith, but also works, as labor, alms, and moral and 
physical purity. It rejects barren asceticism and permits 
interest in earthly things, so that man, satisfying the legiti- 
mate demands of his nature without excess, has the greater 
merit in resisting natural temptations. '*If a man eat," 
says the revealed book, " he will listen better to the sacred 
word; if he do not eat, he will have no strength for pure 
works." Work is a holy thing: "Plough and sow. He 
who soweth with purity fulfilleth the whole law. He who 
giveth good grain to the earth is as great as if he had offered 
ten thousand sacrifices." The believer must pay the same 
care to the earth which nourishes him and to the animals 
which serve him. Common affection results from com- 
munity of labor. Finally, marriage is a sacred bond, and 
numerous children are a blessing. 

Worship required prayers and an offering, consisting of 
animal's flesh, of the sap of certain plants, and of sacred 
cakes, which after the sacrifice are consumed by the priest 
and attendants. The sacred fire, the vase of elevation, the 
vestments of the celebrant, all the utensils of sacrifice, are 
provided for by the priests, who are the interpreters of the 
religious law, which they expound to the faithful. Prayer 
is frequent. There is a prayer for every act in life. 
Thereby the living are saved and the punishment of the 
dead diminished and their deliverance secured. Prayer 
must be made to Ormazd and to the celestial spirits, the 
izeds, who wage incessant war with the devas of Ahriman. 
One must "pray to the sun, the brilliant and vigorous 
courser which never dies," the sun which purifies the earth 
and the waters, and bestows abundance. "If it did not 
rise, the devas would destroy everything upon the earth, 
and there would be no celestial izeds." One must pray by 
day and also by night, for at night Ahriman keeps watch, 
and he is all-powerful. " Rise then at midnight, wash thy 
hands, fetch wood and feed the fire which must always shine 
as symbol of the presence of Ormazd at each hearth." 
Prayer is sometimes a confession, but made to God and not 
to man. " Before thee, Father ! I confess the sins which 



B.C. 800-595.] THE MEDES AND PERSIANS 47 

I have committed in thought, in word, and in action. God 
have pity on my body and on my soul, in this world and in 
the next." 

Unfortunately, man too often ignores his creed to obey 
his passions. The followers of this pure doctrine have 
inflicted on the world as many evils as have done adherents 
of other religions. Nevertheless, they never seem to have 
become as brutal and depraved as the peoples who sought 
their gods in physical ideas of fecundity and generation, or 
in the phenomena of active and passive nature. 

We know nothing of the children of this race who re- 
mained on the banks of the Oxus in Sogdiana and Bactriana. 
Thanks to the narratives of the Greeks and the cuneiform 
inscriptions, we are better acquainted with the Medes. 
Through the Persians the connection was formed between 
Asia and Europe which since their wars with the Greeks 
has not been broken. 

The Medes. — Nevertheless, our details as to Media are 
very late. They begin only in the eighth century before 
our era, when Arbaces, who governed that country for the 
Assyrian kings, revolted successfully against Sardanapalus 
(789). From the long anarchy following their emancipa- 
tion, the Medes were rescued by Dejoces. He proclaimed 
himself king (710), built Ecbatana, and reigned fifty-three 
years in profound peace. His son, Phraortes (657), ren- 
dered the Persians tributary, but was slain by a king of 
Nineveh. Cyaxares, son of Phraortes, avenged him by 
attacking that city, which was rescued by an invasion of 
the Scythians. These barbarians ravaged Western Asia for 
twenty-eight years. The Median king rid himself of their 
chiefs by causing their throats to be cut at a banqviet, over- 
threw Nineveh in 606, and subdued Asia Minor as far as the 
Halys. An eclipse of the sun, predicted by Thales, pre- 
vented a battle which he was on the point of engaging in 
with the Lydians (602). 

Under Astyages, his successor (595), this great dominion 
of the Medes crumbled away. This prince had given his 
daughter Mandana to a Persian chieftain, Cambyses, and 
from this marriage Cyrus was born. A dream caused 
Astyages, says Herodotus, to fear that his grandson would 
some day dethrone him, so he ordered Harpagus to put 
him to death. A herdsman saved the child and brought 
Jiim up in secret. Later on, his grandson was acknowledged 



48 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 595-522. 

by Astyages. Angry with Harpagiis, Astyages put Har- 
pagus' own son to death, and had a portion of the body 
served to the father at a banquet. The courtier controlled 
himself, but waited for revenge. 

The Persians under Cyrus. Conquest of Western Asia. — 
The Persians, poor and warlike mountaineers, wished for 
independence. Cyrus, on reaching manhood, offered to be 
their chief, and led them against the Medes, whom Astyages 
had placed under the orders of Harpagus. The treachery 
of that general assured the defeat of his troops. In a 
second battle Astyages himself was taken prisoner, and the 
dominion of Asia passed from the Medes to the Persians 
(559). The conqueror, profiting by the ardor of his fol- 
lowers, overran the countries in the vicinity of the Caucasus, 
and attacked the Lydians, who ruled between the Halys and 
the ^gean Sea. Their king, Croesus, after defeat in the 
plains of Thymbria, shut himself in Sardis, where he was 
taken alive. Babylon fell eight years later (538). The 
Greek colonies in Asia Minor, together with Phoenicia and 
Palestine, were added to the new empire. The Scythians 
were devastating its northern provinces. Cyrus attacked 
them on the banks of the Araxus, gained one victory, but 
perished in a second battle (529). Nevertheless, the enemy 
were not strong enough to invade Persia in their turn, and 
Cambyses was able to continue in another direction the 
conquests of his father. 

The Persians under Cambyses and Darius. — Cambyses 
undertook to subdue Africa, beginning with Egypt, the last 
great monarchy which Cyrus had left standing. It fell in 
a single battle (527). The conqueror then wished to attack 
Carthage, but for such an expedition a fleet was necessary, 
which the Phoenicians refused to furnish. An army, sent 
against the oasis of Ammon, perished in the desert ; another, 
led against the Ethiopians, suffered from famine, and re- 
turned in disgrace. Cambyses revenged himself for these 
reverses by cruelties of which the priests of Egypt and his 
own family were the victims. He put both his brother and 
sister to death. Recalled to Asia by a revolution, he acci- 
dentally injured himself while mounting his horse, and died 
of the wound (522). 

The rebellion which had broken out was a reaction of the 
Medes against the Persians. A magian, Smerdis, passed 
himself off as the brother of Cambyses, whom he resembled, 



B.C. 522-509.] THE MEDES AND PERSIANS 49 

and was the principal conspirator. Seven Persian noble- 
men replied to this attempt by another conspiracy, stabbed 
the magian, and proclaimed as king one of their own num- 
ber, Darius, the son of Hystaspes. The usurpation of the 
magian had shaken the whole empire. A cuneiform inscrip- 
tion recently deciphered proves that Darius was obliged to 
put down successive rebellions in all the eastern provinces. 
Of all these insurrections we know in some detail only that 
of Babylon, which Herodotus has narrated. It is rendered 
famous by the self-sacrifice of Zopyrus. He mutilated him- 
self to induce the Babylonians to admit him to their city 
as a victim who sought only revenge, but who afterward 
betrayed them (517). 

To assure the collection of the taxes and the support of 
his regular troops, Darius divided into twenty satrapies 
the immense country comprised between the Mediterranean, 
the Ked Sea, and the deserts of Africa, Arabia, and India. 
To occupy the warlike spirit of the Persians he resumed 
the expedition begun by Cyrus against the Scythians, but 
attacked them in Europe rather than in Asia. He crossed 
the Bosphorus, passed over the Danube on a bridge of 
boats which the Asiatic or Thracian Greeks had con- 
structed and guarded, and pushed on far in vain pursuit of 
the Scythians. As the time fixed for his returning to the 
Danube had elapsed, the Athenian, Miltiades, proposed to 
destroy the bridge, and thus leave the Persian army to 
perish. Histiaeus, tyrant of Miletus, opposed this plan, 
representing to the chiefs, all of whom were tyrants of 
Greek cities, that they would be overthrown if they no 
longer had the support of the foreigner. Thus Darius 
was saved. On his return the king left 80,000 men to 
complete the conquest of Thrace and to undertake the con- 
quest of Macedon. He despatched two other expeditions 
to the extremities of the empire (509). The first subdued 
Barca in Cyrenai'ca, and the second overran other lands 
bathed on the west by the Indus. 

The Persian Empire was then at the apogee of its great- 
ness. From the Indus to the Mediterranean, from the 
Danube and Araxes to the Indian Ocean, all owned the 
sway of the great king, and he was about to throw a mill- 
ion men upon Greece. But the Greco-Persian wars will 
show what feebleness existed under this outward show of 
strength. 



50 ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE EAST [b.c. 509. 

Government. -The government was despotic, tempered 
perhaps m the case of the Medes, bj the iuthority of the 
magi, but without other check in the Persian EmW than 
the exaggerated power of the satraps, whose numbeJ Darius 
had imprudently reduced to twenty". MoreoveMhe central 

CvYded^r' '''""' '^^ responsibility of adm'inistra?L 
Provided the provinces paid their taxes in money or kind 

"dependent ^^^C '"^f f ^- ?^^'^^' *^^^' P^^^^^ ^^e^^ 
maependence The great Asiatic courts have always loved 

effeminacy and luxury. The Persians became corrupt like 

their predecessors, in spite of the superiority of their relk- 

Tain'Itf • '^^^l '^'^' ^^' ^^°^^d ^^ ^ con^tinual s ruggfe 
against evil. They erected few monuments. But the 

wal pH ^.•r^''*'/'^'^^^^^^^^^^^ °f Ecbatana, the seven- 
walled city, and modern travellers have been able to admire 
the imposing ruins of Persepolis, which the Arabs cLll 
Tchil-Mmar, or the Forty Columns. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEKS 



PRIMITIVE TIMES 

Ancient Peoples : the Pelasgi and Hellenes. — Greece is 
a very small country. It occupies the extremity of one of 
the three peninsulas which terminate Europe on the south. 
Its territory, inclusive of the islands, does not equal that 
of Portugal or of the State of Maine ; but its shores are so 
indented that its coast line exceeds that of the whole Span- 
ish peninsula. On the north it is attached to the prolonged 
mass of the eastern Alps, which form one of the walls of the 
Danube valley. On the south at three points it projects 
into the Mediterranean. The sea separates it on the west 
from Italy and on the east from Asia. 

As far as one can pierce the obscurity of those remote 
ages, apparently the first inhabitants of Greece were the 
Pelasgi and the laones, or lonians, members of the great 
Aryan race. 

The Pelasgi covered with their tribes Asia Minor, Greece, 
and Italy, and planted in those countries the first seeds of 
civilization. In their monuments they have left imperish- 
able proofs of their activity and power, but they themselves 
have disappeared, and no trustworthy tradition concerning 
them exists. At Mycense, Tiryns, and Argos the remains 
of structures, called cyclopean and attributed to them, are 
still seen. 

By the unaided efforts of her aborigines Greece was 
emerging from a savage condition, when, according to tradi- 
tions now abandoned, but rendered lifelike by legend and 
poetry, colonies arrived from the more civilized countries 
of Asia and Africa, who brought with them knowledge of 
the useful arts and a purer religion. Thus the Egyptian 

51 



52 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 1200. 

Cecrops, disembarking in Attica, is said to have collected 
the inhabitants into twelve small towns, of which Athens 
became later on the capital, and to have taught them to 
cultivate the olive, to extract its oil, and to till the ground. 
To draw closer the bonds of this new society, he is said to 
have instituted the laws of marriage and the tribunal of 
the Areopagus, whose just decisions prevented injurious 
quarrels. 

What Cecrops did in Attica, Cadmus is reported to have 
done in Boeotia, whither he brought the Phcenician alpha- 
bet, and where he built the Cadmeum around which Thebes 
sprang up. At Argos Danaus introduced some of the Egyp- 
tian arts. The Phrygian Pelops settled in Elis, whence his 
progeny spread over almost the whole peninsula, which, 
as the Peloponnesus, preserves his name. Though only 
legends, these traditions hand down the memory of the 
ancient relations between Greece and the opposite coasts. 

For Greece the most important event of this far-distant 
age was the invasion of the Hellenes. From the north of 
Greece, their first halting-place, they scattered all over the 
country, and effaced the Pelasgi by absorbing them. 

Heroic Times. The Trojan War. — The Hellenes were 
divided into four tribes : the lonians and Dorians, who at 
first remained in obscurity, and the ^Eolians and Achseans, 
who were prominent during the heroic period. History had 
not yet begun. Tradition was content with legends, which 
describe heroes travelling over Greece to deliver her from 
the scourge of brigands, oppressors, and ferocious beasts. 
They passed their lives in combating every form of evil, 
and received national gratitude and the title and honors of 
demi-gods, but were slaves to their own passions and abused 
their strength. Such men were Hercules and Theseus. Also 
popular songs celebrated the adventurous voyage of the 
Argonauts to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece; the 
exploits of the Seven Chiefs, who besieged Thebes, defiled 
by the crimes of CEdipus and the quarrels of the Epigoni, 
his sons ; the wise Minos, and many other heroes of those 
fabulous days, whose tragic adventures poetry and art have 
consecrated. 

The Trojan War, which for the first time brought Greece 
into immediate conflict with Asia, is, if considered in its 
general features, a historic fact. Troy was the capital of 
a powerful kingdom in the northwest of Asia Minor and 



B.C. llOi.] PRIMITIVE TIMES 63 

tlie last relic of the Pelasgic power. The hostility of race 
was increased by a deadly injury. Paris, one of the sons 
of King Priam, was smitten by the beauty of Helen, wife 
of Menelaus, king of Sparta, who had shown him hos- 
pitality. He carried her off, and thus enraged all Greece, 
which took the part of the outraged husband. An immense 
fleet, led by his brother, Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, 
landed a numerous army on the shores of the Troad. No 
decisive engagement took place for ten years. Troy, de- 
fended by Hector, the son of Priam, seemed likely to main- 
tain a prolonged resistance, even after her chieftain had 
fallen under the blows of Achilles. The Greeks, then called 
the Achaeans, employed stratagem. Pretending to with- 
draw, they left behind as an offering to the gods a mam- 
moth wooden horse, which the Trojans carried inside their 
walls. The bravest of the Greeks were hidden in its flanks. 
Thus Troy fell. Hecuba, wife of Priam, and her daughters 
were carried into slavery. Priam was slain at the foot of 
the altar. Those of the Achsean princes who had not 
already fallen, like Patroclus, Ajax, and Achilles, set out 
for their own country. Some of them perished on the way. 
Some, like Ulysses, were long held back by contrary winds. 
Still others, like Agamemnon, found their throne and mar- 
riage-bed occupied by usurpers, whose victims they became. 
Many others, like Diomedes and Idomeneus, were forced to 
seek a new home in distant regions. The Iliad and the 
Odyssey relate with incomparable charm these old legends 
in which the popular imagination delighted. 

The Dorian Invasion (1104 b.c). Greek Colonies and Insti- 
tutions. — The eighty years which followed the capture of 
Troy were filled with domestic quarrels, which overthrew 
the ancient royal families and caused the power to pass to 
new hands. The Dorians, led by the Heraclidae, or descend- 
ants of Hercules, invaded the Peloponnesus, surprised de- 
fenceless Laconia, drove the ^olians from Messenia and 
the Achseans from Argos, took possession of Corinth and 
Megara, and later on marched against Athens, whither the 
fugitives had retreated. An oracle promised victory to that 
party whose king should perish first. Codrus, king of 
Athens, entered the hostile camp in disguise and caused him- 
self to be slain. Thereupon the Dorians immediately with- 
drew. On account of the troubled times many inhabitants 
emigrated. On the coast of Asia Minor at Smyrna, Phocaea, 



54 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 776. 

Ephesus, and Miletus, of Africa at Cyrene, of Sicily at 
Messina and Syracuse, and of Italy at Tarentum, Naples, 
and Sybaris, something like a new Greece was formed, which 
for a long time was richer and more beautiful than the 
mother country. In the Asiatic colonies, at the point of 
contact with Eastern society, was first established that 
civilization of which Athens afterward became the resplen- 
dent centre. 

Despite its dispersion on so many shores and its division 
into so many states, the great Hellenic family preserved its 
national unity. This was brought about by community of 
language and religion, by the renown of certain oracles, and 
of Delphi in particular, whither people flocked from all 
parts of the Greek world, and by general institutions such 
as the Amphyctionic Councils and the Public Games. At 
the most celebrated of the Amphyctionic Councils, convened 
at Thermopylae and Delphi, the deputies of a dozen peoples 
discussed common interests, and punished attacks upon the 
national religion or honor. The Olympian Games, where 
victory was passionately disputed, occurred every four 
years. They furnished the basis for chronology because, 
beginning with the year 776 b.c, the name of Coroebus, 
who won the prize of the stadium, was inscribed on the 
public register of the Elians, and it became customary to 
take the date of his victory as the starting-point in mark- 
ing events. 



B.C. 750.] CUSTOMS AND RELIGION OF THE GREEKS 65 



II 

CUSTOMS AND RELIGION OP THE GREEKS 

Spirit of Liberty in Customs and Institutions. — In that 
mountainous land, where nature renders life a struggle, and 
which the free waters surround, has always breathed the 
spirit of independence, even in its most ancient traditions. 

The kings were only military chieftains. When render- 
ing justice, they were aided by the old men. Their revenues 
were voluntary gifts and a larger share of the booty and of 
the sacrifices. There is no trace of that servile adoration 
which Eastern monarchs received. There was no separate 
clergy and no holy book like the Bible, the Vedas, or the 
Avesta. Consecrated doctrines were lacking, and imagina- 
tion was unrestrained. Every head of a family was the 
priest of his own home. 

The aristocracy did not form a caste. The nobles were 
the strongest, the most agile, the bravest. Because they 
possessed those qualities, they were considered sons of the 
gods. Between them and the people there existed no im- 
passable barrier, and no one lived idly on the renown of his 
ancestors. Each man made his own place, at first by force 
and later on by intelligence. What a distance from the 
East, with its absolute rule of deities or of kings and priests, 
their representatives! Here man commands! All must be 
movement, passion, boundless desires, audacious efforts. 
Prometheus has broken his chains and stolen fire from 
heaven in the form of life and thought! 

Below the nobles, who constituted the king's council and 
held the line of the war-chariots in battle, was the body of 
freemen who, in the middle of the public square, formed 
the assembly around the circle of polished stones where the 
leaders sat with the prince. Though they took as yet no 
part in the deliberations, they heard all important ques- 
tions discussed, and by their approving or hostile murmurs 
influenced the decision. Thus from most distant times 
Greece had the custom of public assemblies. The necessity 



56 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 750. 

of convincing before commanding stimulated the mind of 
the people. The condition of the slave was mild. He was 
the f amity servant. When the aged herdsman Eumseus 
recognized his master's son, he kissed him on the brow and 
eyes, and the dying Alcestis offered her hand to her women 
as she bade them her last farewell. 

The family was better constituted than among any 
oriental nation, the Jews alone excepted. Polygamy was 
prohibited. If Greek women were still bought, more than 
one already possessed the severe dignity of the Roman 
matron. They exercised care over domestic affairs. The 
daughters of kings drew water at the fountain like the fair 
Nausicaa, and Andromache fed the horses of Hector. 

The Greek had no liking for tedious repasts or coarse 
pleasures or drunkenness. Immediately after a frugal meal 
he wished for games, exercise, dances, bards to chant the 
glory of the heroes. A stranger at his door was received 
without indiscreet curiosity, "for the guest is the mes- 
senger of Zeus." His wrath was terrible. On the field of 
battle he did not spare the fallen enemy. Still he might 
be appeased by gifts and entreaties, "those halting but 
tireless daughters of great Zeus, who follow after wrong to 
heal the wounds it has made, and who know how to touch 
the hearts of the valiant." Each warrior, feeling the need 
of friends, had a brother-in-arms, and self-sacrifice was the 
first law of those indissoluble friendships. Ten years after 
his return to Lacedeemon Menelaus still shut himself up in 
his palace to mourn for the friends whom he had lost under 
the walls of Troy. 

Later on two unpleasant traits were naturally developed 
in Greek character: venality, because the Greeks were poor 
and the East had gold in profusion; duplicity, because they 
were surrounded by barbarians and must resist force by 
cunning. 

We must furthermore remark that, though the amiable 
and charming qualities we have mentioned caused among 
this people many instances of individual greatness through 
courage, poetry, art, and thought, yet they did not result in 
the durable greatness of the nation. Political sagacity, 
which knows how to conciliate conflicting interests and found 
great states, was not included among the gifts which this 
privileged race received or acquired. 

Religion. — Their religion was, at first, only the natural- 



B.C. 750.] CUSTOMS AND RELIGION OF THE GREEKS 57 

ism brought by them from Asia which had been their 
cradle. At the side of the legends of the heroes and gods, 
we find the adoration of forests, mountains, winds, and 
rivers. Agamemnon invokes the latter as great divinities, 
and to one of them Achilles consecrated his hair. This 
nature worship outlived paganism. In modern Greece peo- 
ple may still be met who believe in spirits of the waters. 
Nature assumes imaginary and changing forms. When 
looked at through mental darkness, these speedily become, 
in the eyes of faith, realities which anthropomorphism seizes 
upon and converts into personal gods. Idealized physical 
forces seem to be spiritual beings, and these spiritual beings 
acquire a body. *' God made man in his own image, " says 
Genesis. The Greeks made their gods in the image of man. 
The conception is the same at bottom, and yet the difference 
is great, for the point of departure is, on the one hand, the 
infinite perfections of the Supreme Being, and on the other, 
the finiteness of humanity. Hence the scandals of Olympus, 
together with its grandeurs, and the unsavory history of 
those gods, who were subject to all human passions, wrath, 
hatred, violence, and even human woes. "Servitude," ex- 
claims a poet, "why, Demeter endured it! The smith of 
Lemnos, and Poseidon, and Apollo of the silver bow, and 
Ares the terrible endured it also ! " In the combats before 
Troy many are wounded. " Their blood flows," says Homer, 
"but a blood that resembles dew, a sort of divine vapor." 

When the theodicy of later times had defined with preci- 
sion the functions of the immortals, those who counted the 
greatest number of worshippers were the twelve great gods 
of Olympus. Their chief, the enfeebled reiDresentative of 
the ancient idea of a Supreme Cause, was Zeus, who still 
shook the universe with his frown. But there were many 
other divinities, since Greek polytheism, by raising to 
divine rank the phenomena of nature, the passions of men, 
good things and evil, was led to multiply the gods inces- 
santly. 

These gods, not always respectable, were, nevertheless, 
considered the vigilant guardians of justice. The Furies, 
inexorable ministers of their vengeance, attached themselves 
to the guilty, whether living or dead. Their hair inter- 
woven with serpents, one hand armed with a scourge of 
vipers and the other brandishing a torch, they filled the 
soul with terror and the heart with torture. This deifica- 



58 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c.750. 

tion of remorse was all the more necessary as a moral sanc- 
tion because this religion was as uncertain of the future life 
as was ancient Judaism. No doubt punishment awaited 
the criminal in the infernal regions, and the just were re- 
warded, but how empty the rewards! In the Elysian 
Fields, amid groves of fruit and flowers in a perpetual 
summer the souls of the blessed continued to enjoy the 
pleasures which they had loved on earth. Minos still sat 
in judgment as in his island of Crete ; Nestor recounted his 
exploits; Tiresias uttered oracles, and Orion hunted the 
wild beasts which he had formerly slain on the mountains, 
all regretting their life the while. "Console me not for 
my death," said the shade of Achilles. "I would rather 
till the soil for some poor husbandman than reign here." 
Moreover this immortality is promised only to heroes. As 
for the masses, they can count only on the good and the ill 
of this present life which the gods deal out to them. There 
is a kinship between the members of the city as of the 
family. The sons will be punished or rewarded even unto 
the third generation for the faults and virtues of their 
fathers; peoples likewise for those of their kings, and kings 
for their peoples. Such is the blessing and the warning of 
Abraham ; a precious belief in default of a more energetic 
spring of action, and one which Hesiod sets forth in mag- 
nificent verses. 

The gods could be appeased by offerings and prayers. At 
the door of the temple stood the priest, sprinkling lustral 
water upon the hands and heads of the worshippers. The 
sacrifice, always celebrated in the open air, was a sacred 
banquet, a sort of religious communion between the god, 
the priests, and the devotees. In the centre of the temple 
rose the statue of the god, surrounded by the statues of 
deities or heroes whom he condescended to admit within his 
sanctuary. On the walls offerings and votive gifts were 
suspended in gratitude for some marvellous cure or unex- 
pected deliverance. Eelics of the heroes were preserved. 
At Olympia the shoulder of Pelops by contact healed cer- 
tain maladies. At Tegaea the bones of Orestes rendered 
that city victorious as long as it possessed them. The 
statues of the gods exerted special influences; one cured 
colds, another the gout. The image of Hercules at Erythrae 
restored sight to a blind man. Often the images exuded 
perspiration, moved their arms and eyes, and rattled their 



B.C. 750.] CUSTOMS AND RELIGION OF THE GREEKS 59 

weapons. At Andros, annually on the festival of Bacchus, 
water was changed into wine. The temples possessed prop- 
erty which did not belong to the priests, and, like churches 
in the Middle Ages, many enjoyed the right of asylum. 
Private persons or cities could be excluded from the sacri- 
fices. Whole nations, placed under the ban of excommuni- 
cation, were exterminated, like the Albigenses in France. 

All peoples have tried to wrest from the future its secrets. 
All have had sorcerers or magicians or augurs, like the 
Greeks who interpreted celestial signs, dreamers who beheld 
the invisible, or rhapsodists, like the Pythia of Delphi, who 
felt the god move within and gave forth his oracles. By a 
strange misconception the philosophers accepted this super- 
stition. "God," said Plato, "has bestowed divination upon 
man to supply his lack of intelligence," and the generals 
and politicians were obliged to reckon with it. However, 
let us note Hector's indignant protest against these pre- 
tended voices from on high, which may deceive. " The best 
of omens," said he, "is to defend one's country." 

If the Hellenic gods did not greatly influence the moral 
development of their worshippers, they did much for art 
and poetry, and they did not fetter philosophic thought. 
"You will die," was the apostrophe to them of Prometheus 
through the mouth of ^schylus in a century of faith, " and 
some day these nations will hear a voice crying, 'The gods 
are dead ! ' " 



60 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 830. 



Ill 

LYCURGUS AND SOLON 

Sparta before Lycurgus. — We know almost nothing con- 
cerning the liistory of Sparta during the two centuries 
which preceded Lycurgus. Only we see that the Spartans, 
few in number in the midst of a people who had not emi- 
grated at the time of conquest, were obliged to remain 
constantly under arms, like an army encamped in a hostile 
country. The Dorians concentrated around Sparta, and 
alone constituted the state, since they alone could be pres- 
ent at the assemblies where the laws were enacted, and alone 
held public office. They had two classes of subjects: in 
the open town the Laconians, who possessed civil rights ; in 
the country the Helots, or serfs attached to the soil, con- 
demned to plough and harvest for their masters. The 
Spartans composed the ruling race, and were all equal to 
one another. 

However, this equality gradually became disturbed, 
jpowerful families arose, while others lost their lands. 
Hence there was disorder within the city and weakness 
outside. One man attempted to stop this premature decline 
by restoring the ancient customs. This man was Lycurgus. 

Lycurgus : His Political Ideas. — The widow of his brother, 
King Polydectes, offered him her hand and the Spartan 
throne if he would put his nephew Charilaus to death. He 
refused, but the nobles, irritated by his wise administration 
during the minority of the young prince, forced him into 
exile. He travelled for a long time, studying the laws of 
other nations, and returned to Lacedaemon with Homer's 
poems after an absence of eighteen years. With her relig- 
ious authority the Pythia of Delphi supported the reforms 
which he proposed, and which the Spartans, weary of their 
dissensions, welcomed with favor. His laws maintained 
the relation already established between the dominant Spar- 
tans and the subject Laconians. They regulated the rights 
of the two kings, Sparta being a dual monarchy; of the 



B.C. 830.] LYCURGUS AND SOLON 61 

senate, composed of twenty-eight members of at least sixty 
years of age; of the general assembly, which could adopt 
or reject propositions presented by the senate and kings; 
and lastly of the Ephory, a body of magistrates appointed 
annually, perhaps instituted by Lycurgus, but whose great 
power dates from a later period. By hereditary right the 
two kings were the high priests of the nation, commanded 
the army, and were to enforce the decrees formulated by 
the senate and freely accepted by the popular assembly. 

Civil Laws. — His civil laws aimed at the establishment 
of equality among the citizens. To effect this, he divided 
the land into 39,000 plots, — 30,000 for the Laconians and 
9,000 for the Spartans. This division was attended with 
great difficulties, and led to a riot, in which Lycurgus was 
wounded; nevertheless, it succeeded. The 9,000 lots of the 
Spartans comprised the greater part of Laconia, and naturally 
included the most fertile lands, whose value the Helots were 
to increase. Forbidding the alienation to strangers of any 
of these lots, Lycurgus erected them into a sort of perma- 
nent military fiefs. War constantly diminished the number 
of the Spartans, so that they numbered only a thousand in 
the time of Aristotle. Consequently great wealth accumu- 
lated in the hands of a few families. The Laconians, on 
the contrary, could ally themselves with foreigners, so 
their number increased; but their possessions relatively 
decreased, and the time came when there was only a small 
number of rich people and below them a multitude of poor. 
Hence arose revolutions which disturbed the last days of 
Sparta. 

To maintain equality, Lycurgus prohibited luxury and 
the use of gold or silver money, and instituted public re- 
pasts, where the strictest frugality always reigned. At the 
same time, he forbade to the Spartans commerce, arts, or 
letters, and prescribed for all the citizens the same exer- 
cises, setting forth as the single aim of their whole life to 
provide and train robust defenders for the country. The 
same principle guided the education of the children, who 
belonged far more to the state than to their parents. The 
child born deformed was put to death. The rest, by means 
of violent exercises, which were imposed also on the girls, 
acquired strength and suppleness, and all were inspired 
with sentiments of respect for old age and the law, and of 
contempt for pain and death. 



62 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 743-594 

The Messenian Wars. — Delivered from dissensions by 
this rigorous legislation, Sparta completed the conquest of 
Laconia, and bega,n that of the Peloponnesus. She first 
turned her arms against the Messenians, a Doric tribe settled 
west of the Taygetus mountains. There were two wars; 
the one lasted twenty years (743-723), the other seventeen 
(685-668). The hero of the first was the fierce Aristodemus, 
who immolated his daughter in obedience to an oracle, and 
killed himself, that he might not witness the humiliation of 
his people after the capture of Ithome, which he had de- 
fended for ten years. In the second, Aristomenes per- 
formed marvels. Not only did he vanquish the Spartans, 
but he made his way by night into their city and hung up 
a trophy in one of their temples. In vain did the poet 
Tyrtaeus stimulate the courage of the Lacedaemonians. 
Aristomenes, after being made prisoner, and cast alive into 
the deep pit called Ceadas, escaped, and recommenced his 
daring career. When betrayed by his ally, the king of the 
Arcadians, and defeated in a great battle, he retired to 
Mount Ira and there held out for eleven years. At last 
he was forced to yield, but preferred exile to servitude. 
Many Messenians emigrated and founded Messina in Sicily. 
Those who remained in Messenia shared the fate of the 
Helots. 

This conquest was followed by wars against the cities of 
Tegea and Argos, but neither was completely subdued. 
The Spartans, in the sixth century before our era, were 
considered the leading people of Greece, and were in fact 
the most formidable. 

Athens until the Time of Solon. The Archonship. — After 
the death of Codrus, Athens abolished the monarchy and 
appointed archons. Their office until 752 was for life, then 
for ten years, after 683 for only one year, and finally was 
shared by nine magistrates. This divided authority could 
not check the excesses of the aristocracy or the projects of 
the ambitious. The stern code of Draco, which punished 
every offence with death, was rejected, and troubles con- 
tinued. 

Solon. — In 594 the task of reforming the laws and the 
constitution was intrusted to Solon, then famous for his 
poetry. He began by making the payment of debt easier, 
and by releasing all debtors, but he refused to allow the 
partition of land which the poor demanded. His aim was 



B.C. 594-514.] LYCURGUS AND SOLON 63 

to abolish an oppressive aristocracy, without, however, estab- 
lishing what would be called to-day a radical democracy. 
He divided the people into four classes, according to prop- 
erty. To belong to the first class, one must possess an 
income of 500 medimni, about eighty-five dollars ; for the 
second class, 400; for the third, 300. Those who had a 
smaller income were the fourth class, or Thetes. Only 
members of the first three classes were eligible to public 
office, but all might attend the public assemblies and sit in 
the tribunals. The nine archons, the supreme magistrates 
of the state, could not discharge military duties. The 
senate consisted of 400 members, chosen by lot from the 
first three classes, and subjected to severe tests. Every 
proposition, made to the public assembly, must be first dis- 
cussed by it. The people confirmed the laws, nominated 
to office, deliberated on state affairs, and filled the courts 
in order to try great lawsuits. The Areopagus, composed 
of former archons, was the supreme tribunal for capital 
causes. It superintended morals and magistrates, and 
could even annul the decisions of the people. Thus this 
constitution was a clever mixture of aristocracy and de- 
mocracy, where the management of public affairs was re- 
served to the enlightened citizens. In his civil laws Solon 
encouraged labor, and never, like Lycurgus, sacrificed the 
man to the citizen, or the moral code to politics. 

The Pisistratidae. Clisthenes. Themistocles. — After pro- 
mulgating his laws, the Athenian legislator departed to 
consult the wisdom of the ancient Eastern nations. When 
he returned in 565, he found that Athens had given itself a 
master. The parties, which he had thought to stifle, had 
reappeared. From these fresh struggles had sprung the 
tyranny of Pisistratus, who, without abolishing the consti- 
tution, managed, as the favorite of the people and the 
leader of the democracy, to exercise in the city an influ- 
ence which annulled that of the magistrates. His mild 
tyranny, however, was friendly to letters and arts. In 560, 
by pretending that an attempt had been made upon his life, 
he succeeded in having ^ards appointed for his protection. 
Twice exiled, he was twice recalled, and retained power 
until his death. He had honored, if not legitimized, his 
usurpation by a skilful and prosperous administration. 

His two sons, Hipparchus and Hippias, succeeded (528), 
and governed together; but when Hipparchus fell, in 514, 



64 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 514-500. 

under the dagger of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, Hippias 
became a cruel tyrant. The powerful family of the Alc- 
meonidee, who had fled from Athens, thought the occasion 
favorable to overthrow the last of the Pisistratidse. They 
bribed the Pythia of Delphi, who induced the Spartans to 
support them. Aided by a Dorian army, they did in fact 
return to Athens, and compel Hippias to flee to the Persians 
(510). The city, thus delivered, fell at once into intestine 
quarrels. Clisthenes and Isagoras, leaders of the people 
and of the aristocrats, banished each other in turn. The 
former finally carried the day, in spite of the succor fur- 
nished his rival by the Spartans. To reward the people who 
had supported him, he made the constitution more demo- 
cratic, and established ostracism, a custom which consisted 
in exiling, as dangerous to the city, any citizen whose name 
was inscribed on at least 6000 voting shells. Athens, the 
mistress of Euboea, the Thracian Chersonese, and the island 
of Lemnos, which Miltiades had conquered, was already a 
maritime power. To increase her strength, Themistocles 
built 200 vessels with the income of the silver mines of 
Larium. This fleet was destined to save Athens and Greece. 



B.C. 500-490.] THE PERSIAN WARS 65 



IV 

THE PERSIAN WARS 

Revolt of the Asiatic Greeks from the Persians (500). — 
Darius had undertaken his expedition against the Scythians, 
and had conquered Thrace, without the Greeks paying any 
heed to this formidable aggressor, who must inevitably be 
tempted to lay his hand upon their country also. The 
Asiatic Greeks, who were subject to Persia, struck a blow 
for liberty. Miletus, a colony of Athens, was the centre of 
the movement. It asked of the mother city the aid which 
Sparta had refused to give. Athens furnished vessels and 
a body of troops, which contributed to the capture and burn- 
ing of Sardis. A defeat, sustained in their return from this 
expedition, disgusted the Athenians with the war, the bur- 
den of which then fell upon the lonians, who were crushed 
in a naval battle. After Miletus was taken, and all the 
Greek cities of Asia were again subdued, a Persian army 
commanded by Mardonius crossed to Europe to chastise the 
allies of the rebels. The Persian fleet was destroyed by a 
tempest near Mount Athos, and the Thracians inflicted heavy 
losses upon the land forces, so Mardonius returned to Asia. 

First Persian War. Marathon and Miltiades (490). — A 
second expedition, under the command of Datis and Arta- 
phernes, guided by the tyrant Hippias, set out by sea through 
the Cyclades, which it subdued, and disembarked 100,000 
Persians at Marathon. There 10,000 Athenians and 1000 
Plataeans, under the command of Miltiades, by their heroic 
courage saved not only their country, but the liberty and the 
civilization of the world. Hippias fell upon the field of 
battle. The Persian fleet, after a vain attempt to surprise 
Athens, sailed away in shame to Asia. Miltiades, the hero 
of that grand day, was commissioned to subdue the Cyclades, 
but he failed before Paros. Being accused of treason, he 
was condemned to a fine, which he could not pay, and died 
in prison of his wounds. Then Themistocles became the 
most influential man at Athens. He realized that the Per- 



66 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 480-479. 

sians would renew their attempt. Taking advantage of an 
insurrection in Egypt, which forced Darius to postpone his 
revenge, he devoted all the resources of Athens to increas- 
ing the fleet. 

Second Persian War. Salamis (480). — Xerxes succeeded 
Darius. After he had reduced Egypt once more to submis- 
sion, he agitated his immense empire to make a resistless 
invasion of Greece with a million men and more than 1200 
ships. On arriving from Susa at Abydos he threw a bridge 
across the Dardanelles. To punish Athos, as he said, he 
had a canal dug, which relieved his fleet of the necessity of 
sailing round that dangerous promontory. Thrace, Mace- 
don, and Thessaly were deluged with troops, and submitted. 
He encountered resistance only at the Pass of Thermopylae. 
King Leonidas, who held it with 300 Spartans and a few 
Thespians, thwarted all his efforts, but a traitor showed the 
Persians a path by which they could outflank the heroic 
band. They still refused to retreat, and in the very camp 
of Xerxes sought a glorious death. After Thermopylae had 
been forced, the Greek fleet could no longer remain off 
Artemisium, at the north of Euboea, where it had anchored 
at first. It withdrew to Salamis, leaving Attica and cen- 
tral Greece defenceless. Xerxes entered Athens, which he 
burned. He believed the war was finished, but all Athens 
was on board her ships. Themistocles employed a stratagem 
to keep the Greeks together at a favorable point, and ex- 
cited Xerxes to end all by a naval battle. From the throne 
erected for him on the shore the great king beheld the de- 
feat and destruction of his fleet at the battle of Salamis. 
Six months after crossing the Hellespont as a conqueror, 
he repassed it as a fugitive. 

Flatsea (479). — He had, however, left Mardonius in 
Greece with 300,000 men. A hundred thousand Greeks 
collected at Plataea under the orders of Pausanias, king of' 
Sparta. Of the barbarian host only a detachment escaped, 
which had retreated before the battle. On the same day the 
Greek fleet won a complete victory at Mycale on the Asiatic 
coast. Thus the European continent was purged from the 
barbarians, and the sea was free. Athens launched out 
upon it. 

Continuance of the War by Athens. — To Athens belongs 
the chief honor in resisting the Persian invasion. Alone 
she had conquered at Marathon with Miltiades. At Salamis 



B.C. 479^48.] THE PERSIAN WARS 67 

her Themistocles had again assured the victory by forcing 
the allies to conquer in spite of themselves. The glory of 
Mycale belonged almost wholly to her, and she had shared 
that of Plataea. Sparta could cite only the immortal but 
futile self-sacrifice of Leonidas. The treachery of King 
Pausanias, whom the ephors had sent to Thrace to expel 
the Persian garrisons, and who treated secretly with Xerxes, 
completely disgusted Lacedaemon with this war. Athens, 
thus left alone at the head of the allies, boldly accepted the 
role of antagonist to the great king. She herself assumed 
the offensive. Soon, asking vessels and money from her 
allies instead of soldiers, she continued the struggle in the 
name of Greece, but on her own account and for her own 
advantage. She subdued Amphipolis and a part of Thrace, 
whither she sent 10,000 colonists, and undertook to free the 
Asiatic Greeks. Cimdn in one day gained two victories, one 
by land and one by sea, near the banks of the Eurymedon 
(466). Thereby he secured for Athens the empire of the 
seas, and, taking possession of the Thracian Chersonese, he 
wrested from the Persians the key to Europe. 

Last Victories of the Greeks. Cimon. — Artaxerxes Lon- 
gimanus ascended the throne in 465, and beheld the shame 
of his empire still further increased. Another rebellion in 
Egypt threatened the Persian monarchy with dismember- 
ment. The Athenians hastened to aid the rebels, who held 
out for seven years. The banishment of Cimon, who was 
ostraoized, and the rivalry of Sparta and Athens, which led 
to the first war between the two republics and their allies, 
gave a little respite to the Persians. But Cimon was re- 
called, and reconciled Athens and Sparta. Immediately he 
began hostilities against the common enemy. One victory 
near Cyprus, and another on the coast of Asia, gloriously 
terminated both his military career and the Persian wars. 
The great king, threatened even in his own dominions, 
signed a humiliating treaty, which restored liberty to the 
Asiatic Greeks (448). His fleet was prohibited from enter- 
ing the iEgean Sea, and his armies from approaching within 
three days' march of its coasts. Cimon died in his triumph. 



68 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 460-430 



THE AGE OP PERICLES 

The Athenian People. — During this struggle Athens had 
been admirably served by the great men who had succeeded 
each other as her generals or statesmen : Miltiades, the hero 
of Marathon; Themistocles, who so often mingled craft 
with courage ; Aristides, more upright, more just, benefiting 
Athens by his virtues equally with his valor ; and thus inspir- 
ing the allies with sufficient confidence to trust to him their 
vessels and treasures, a man who, after having administered 
the most opulent treasury in Europe, died without leaving 
enough property to defray his funeral expenses, and be- 
queathed to the state the duty of paying them and of dower- 
ing his daughter; Cimon, son of Miltiades, greater than his 
father, a hero whose single passion was to unite the Greek 
cities in fraternal bonds, and pursue the Persians to the 
death, and avenge the burning of Athens and of her temples. 
With these illustrious leaders we must associate the Athe- 
nian people, a populace often fickle, thankless, and violent, 
but which redeemed its faults and crimes by its enthusiasm 
for everything beautiful and grand, by the masterpieces 
which it inspired, and by the artists and poets whom it gave 
mankind, and who will forever plead its cause with pos- 
terity. 

Pericles. — Pericles, the son of Xanthippus, the conqueror 
of Mycale, deserves special mention in this roll of honor. 
From a fancied facial resemblance to Pisistratus, he long 
held himself aloof from politics. Though by birth an aris- 
tocrat, he attached himself to the popular party. The 
powerful influence which he acquired by the dignity of his 
life and his military services he employed to restrain the 
evil and to develop the good impulses of the people. This 
little city controlled too vast an empire. To assure its con- 
tinuance, he sent out numerous colonies, which did not, like 
those of preceding centuries, become cities independent of 
the mother country, but rather fortresses and garrisons 



B.C. 460-430.] THE AGE OF PERICLES 69 

whereby the country in which they were established was 
held in submission to Athens. 

Great Intellects at Athens. — Pericles desired that Athens 
should be not only rich and powerful, but also glorious. 
He invited thither those superior men who then honored 
the Hellenic race. From all directions mankind flocked to 
the city of Minerva as an intellectual capital. The festi- 
vals were thronged, where the loftiest pleasures of the mind 
were associated with the most imposing spectacles of re- 
ligious pomp, of perfect art, and of nature in her most 
charming aspect. These festivals were not, like those of 
the Eoman populace, sanguinary games of the amphitheatre 
with spectacles of death, blood, and corpses, but consisted 
of pious hymns, patriotic songs, and dramatic representa- 
tions of events in the history of the gods or of the heroes. 

Thus this period, often called the Age of Pericles, beheld 
at Athens one of the most brilliant bursts of civilization 
which has ever illumined the world. What a century that 
was, when, in a single city, there met each other Sophocles 
and Euripides, two of the greatest tragic poets of all ages ; 
Lysias, the powerful orator ; Herodotus, the inimitable nar- 
rator; Meton, the astronomer, and Hippocrates, the father 
of medicine; Aristophanes, foremost of the comic poets 
of antiquity; Phidias, the most illustrious of its artists; 
Apollodorus, Zeuxis Polygnotus, and Parrhasius, its most 
celebrated painters ; and in conclusion, two immortal phi- 
losophers, Anaxagoras and Socrates. If we remember that 
this city had just lost J^schylus, and that it was soon to 
possess Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle, we 
shall not be surprised that it was called '' the preceptress 
of Greece," and that it became the teacher of the world. 

The Parthenon. — We still read the works of those poets, 
historians, and philosophers, but of the achievements of the 
artists only fragments remain. Nevertheless when, seated 
on the tribune from which Demosthenes spoke, one con- 
templates the Acropolis, and beholds the exquisite grace, 
the incomparable beauty, and the imposing grandeur which 
those ruins of what once were the Parthenon, the Erec- 
theum, and the Propylaea still preserve, he is overwhelmed 
with admiration. However vivid be in his mind the memory 
of vast Egyptian monuments, he says to himself that the 
art eternal is here. 



70 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 457-424 



VI 

RIVALRY OP SPARTA, ATHENS, AND THEBES 

Irritation of the Allies against Athens. — After the Persian 
wars were finished, Athens continued to exact tribute 
money from her confederates on the plea that the Greeks 
must be ready to repel a fresh invasion. The money thus 
collected she spent upon herself. The allies grew tired of 
always paying for those monuments and festivals, which 
gave such brilliancy to only one city. When their com- 
plaints were harshly repressed, they addressed mute suppli- 
cations to Sparta. Jealous of the glory of Athens, Sparta 
labored to form a continental league which she could oppose 
to that of the maritime cities and islands which were sub- 
ject to the Athenians. From 457 to 431 there were several 
hostile encounters, but the general war did not break out 
until the Thebans, who were allies of Sparta, attacked 
Plataea, which was an ally of Athens. 

The Peloponnesian War to the Peace of Nicias (431^24). 
— The struggle at first consisted only of pillaging expedi- 
tions on both sides. The Spartans devastated Attica every 
spring, while every summer the Athenian fleet ravaged the 
coasts of the Peloponnesus. Unfortunately, in the third 
year, a pestilence mowed down the people packed together 
in Athens, and carried off Pericles. Demagogues, unable to 
control the masses, took the place of the dead statesman. 
Cleon, the new popular favorite, gave free rein to the pas- 
sions of the crowd. After the revolt of Mitylene in 427, 
the Athenian mob condemned a whole people to death, 
and a thousand Mitylenean prisoners were slain. From 
429 to 426 the successes were balanced. The Boeotians de- 
stroyed Platsea, but Potidaea was captured by the Athenians. 
In 424 Brasidas took Amphipolis, thereby apparently giv- 
ing the advantage to Lacedaemon, but Demosthenes seized 
Pylos, and thence called the helots to liberty, while 400 
Spartans, who had allowed themselves to be shut up in 
Sphacteria while attempting to reconquer Pylos, were them- 



B.C. 421-408.] RIVALRY OF SPARTA, ATHENS, AND THEBES 71 

selves overpowered and made prisoners. The Lacedaemo- 
nian allies, the Boeotians and Megarians, were beaten. The 
Athenians in turn met a check at Delium, and Cleon was 
slain at Potidaea. The Spartan, Brasidas, also fell in the 
same action. The partisans of peace then regained the 
upper hand (421), and Nicias caused the treaty to be signed 
which bears his name. 

The Sicilian Expedition. Alcibiades (425-413). — This 
peace upset the calculations of the ambitious and brilliant 
Alcibiades, the nephew of Pericles. As he desired war that 
he might win distinction, he proposed and caused to be 
voted the disastrous expedition to Sicily, which might per- 
haps have succeeded, had he not been accused of sacrilege 
and recalled. The traitor then fled to Sparta, and from 
there directed fatal blows against his own country. The 
siege of Syracuse, weakly conducted by Nicias, ended in the 
destruction of the Athenian fleet and army (413). The 
leaders were put to death by the Syracusans, and the sol- 
diers sold as slaves. 

This disaster dealt the power of Athens a blow from 
which she did not recover. By the advice of Alcibiades, 
the Spartans fortified Decelea at the entrance to Attica, 
which they held as though besieged, and allied themselves 
with the Persians. Athens heroically braved the storm, 
displayed unexpected resources, and held all her allies to 
their duty. Fortunately for her, Alcibiades was compelled 
to flee from Sparta. He withdrew into Asia, and won the 
good-will of Tissaphernes, by showing him the advantage to 
the great king in supporting a war so useful to the Persian 
Empire. By the promise of subsidies from Persia, Alcibi- 
ades seduced an Athenian army then at Samos, and brought 
about a revolution at Athens. The democracy was curbed 
by the establishment of a superior council, with 400 mem- 
bers, which replaced the senate, and by an assembly of 
5000 chosen citizens, which replaced the assembly of the 
people (411), But the army of Alcibiades, while appoint- 
ing Alcibiades as its general, repudiated the new govern- 
ment, which fell at the end of four months. The Assembly 
of the Five Thousand was retained, however, and the recon- 
ciliation of the army and people was sealed by the recall of 
Alcibiades. Two naval battles won in the Hellespont (411), 
a great victory on land and sea near Cyzicus (410), and 
lastly the capture of Byzantium (408), consolidated the 



72 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 407-396. 

dominion of Athens over Thrace and Ionia, and Alcibiades 
made a triumphal return to his country (407). But the 
same year several disasters which he was unable to prevent 
aroused suspicion ; he was again stripped of his power and 
forced into exile. He finally perished at the hands of the 
Persians. 

The Battle of Mgos Potamos, Capture of Athens (404). — 
The younger Cyrus, who was already plotting the overthrow 
of his brother, King Artaxerxes II, then held command 
in Asia Minor. For the accomplishment of his projects he 
counted upon the assistance of the Spartans, whom he re- 
garded as the best soldiers in Greece or in the world. So 
he gave them unreserved support. By the crushing vic- 
tory of ^gos Potamos, Lysander wrested from Athens the 
empire of the sea (405). Athens was unable to resist 
further, and was captured the following year. Her walls 
were razed, her fleet reduced to twelve galleys, and the 
government intrusted to an oligarchy of thirty tyrants, 
who sanctioned abominable atrocities, and even put to death 
one of their colleagues, Theramenes, for having suggested 
moderation. After a few months a returned exile, Thrasy- 
boulos, defeated the army of the tyrants and reestablished 
the former constitution (403). 

Four years later Socrates was condemned to drink hem- 
lock. He was one of the most illustrious victims of super- 
stition and intolerance. 

Power of Sparta. Expedition of the Ten Thousand. Age- 
silaus. — The supremacy in the Greek world had passed from 
Athens to Lacedeemon, who used it badly. She did little 
for art or learning, and her chiefs displayed nothing but 
brutal rapacity and greed. 

The younger Cyrus was pursuing his plans. With thir- 
teen thousand Greek mercenaries, he made his way as far 
as the neighborhood of Babylon, and won the battle of Cu- 
naxa, but he died in the moment of triumph (401). The 
Greeks, surrounded on all sides, managed, under the leader- 
ship of the Lacedsemonian Clearchus, and afterwards of the 
Athenian Xenophon, to make their way across four hundred 
leagues of country, over the pathless mountains of upper 
Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Pontus, to the shores of the 
Black Sea. This famous retreat, known as that of the Ten 
Thousand, revealed the weakness of the great empire. There- 
fore as early as the year 396 Agesilaus, king of Sparta, pro- 



B.C. 396-371.] RIVALRY OF SPARTA, ATHENS, AND THEBES 73 

posed its conquest. Conqueror of the satraps of Asia Minor, 
ally of the Egyptians, who had again revolted, and master of 
the forces of many barbarian kings, he was about to under- 
take the Persian expedition, sixty years before Alexander, 
when the Persians found means to incite a war against 
Sparta in the very heart of Greece itself. At their instiga- 
tion, Corinth, Thebes, and Argos formed a league, which 
Athens and Thessaly joined. Agesilaus, thus recalled from 
Asia, won the battle of Coronea, which strengthened the 
dominion of Sparta on land; but the Athenian Conon, in 
command of a Phoenician fleet, deprived her of the empire 
of the sea, and with Persian gold rebuilt the ramparts of 
Athens. 

Treaty of Antalcidas. — The Spartans, disturbed by the 
strength of their rivals, sent Antalcidas to treat with the 
great king. The Asiatic Greeks became his subjects, Athens 
retained Lemnos, Imbros, and Seyros, but the independence 
of the other Greek cities was recognized (387). In Cimon's 
treaty it had been Athens who imposed her conditions upon 
Persia. The change had come, not because Persia was more 
powerful, but Greece less virtuous. Everything was for sale, 
and as the great king had much gold, he bought everything, 
orators, soldiers, fleets, cities. The outcome of a war no 
longer depended upon the patriotism of the citizens and the 
talent of the leaders, but upon an obolus more or less in the 
wages of the mercenaries which induced them to pass from 
one camp to the other. 

Struggle between Sparta and Thebes. Epaminondas (381- 
362). — The alliance against Sparta had placed Greece at 
the feet of Persia. Yet Sparta seemed strong, and believed 
herself able to act as she pleased. One day she destroyed 
Mantinea without cause and overthrew Olynthus. Finally 
one of her generals, Phibidias, violating all justice, sur- 
prised the Cadmeum, the citadel of Thebes, which was then 
the ally of Lacedaemon. The Spartans retained what treach- 
ery had given them (382). The Theban Pelopidas at the 
head of many exiles delivered his country, and reunited in 
a common alliance all the cities of Boeotia. At Leuctra 
Epaminondas crushed the army the Spartans had sent 
against them (371), and ventured to carry the war into the 
Peloponnesus. He fought his way to the very walls of 
Sparta, which however he was unable to enter. To hold 
it in check he built on its flanks Megalopolis and Messene, 



74 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 362. 

which became fortresses and camps of refuge for the Arca- 
dian and Messenian foes of Sparta (369). Against Thebes 
Sparta excited Athens, Persia, and Dionysius, tyrant of 
Syracuse. Then Epaminondas invaded the Peloponnesus 
a second time, made an alliance with the Persian court, and 
created a navy of one hundred vessels which supported 
Rhodes, Chios, and Byzantium in revolt against Athens. 
Unhappily for Thebes, Epaminondas a third time invaded 
the Peloponnesus, and perished in the arms of victory at 
Mantineia (362). The power of his country fell with him. 



B.C. 359.] PHILIP OF MACEDON, AND DEMOSTHENES 75 



VII 

PHILIP OF MACEDON, AND DEMOSTHENES 

Philip. — Macedon, a vast region to the north of Thessaly 
and of the ^gean Sea, very early had kings who, sur- 
rounded by barbarous peoples and dominated by a powerful 
aristocracy, had hitherto played only an insignificant part. 
Before Philip, the father of Alexander, Macedon was even 
in a desperate situation. She paid tribute to the Illyrians, 
and the haughty intervention of Thebes and Athens in her 
affairs only increased the chaos. Philip, who had been sent 
to Thebes as a hostage, was brought up in the house of 
Epaminondas, and saw how the genius of one man could 
elevate a nation. Therefore on attaining power (359) he 
was able in two years, by means of the phalanx which he 
had organized in accordance with the ideas of Epaminondas, 
to rid the kingdom of the barbarians and himself of two 
competitors. 

Capture of Amphipolis. Occupation of Thessaly. — Macedon 
once set free, he wished to enlarge and make it the ruler 
of Greece. The Greek colonies, established on her coasts, 
cut her off from the sea and prevented her having a navy ; 
so he captured them one after another. First he purchased 
the neutrality of the powerful republic of Olynthus by 
giving it Potidaea, which he had seized. Then he took 
Amphipolis, which Athens deceived by his promises was 
unable to succor. Next he completed the conquest of the 
country between the Nestos and the Strymon, where he 
found building-timber for his navy, and the gold mines of 
Mount Pangseus, that furnished him a revenue of a thou- 
sand talents. Afterwards he penetrated into Thrace, which 
he partially subdued, and attacked Byzantium, which was 
delivered by Athens. Checked in that quarter, he turned 
to another. He interfered in the affairs of Thessaly, where 
he overthrew the tyrants of Pherse, and appointed himself 
the champion of religion against the Phocians, who had just 
been condemned by the Amphictyonic Council for having 



76 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b. 0.352-338.' 

tilled a sacred field. He crushed them in a great battle 
(352). The grateful Thessalians opened three of their 
towns to the avenger of the gods. He put a garrison in- 
side and thereby held the entire province. He wished to 
go further and seize Thermopylae. But the Athenians by 
their vigilance at first frustrated this project, as they had 
frustrated one attempt upon Byzantium and another upon 
Europe. 

Demosthenes. — The Athenians alone seemed active in the 
interests of Greece. They were led by a great citizen, 
Demosthenes, who constantly employed his vigorous elo- 
quence in unveiling the ambitious designs of the king. But 
his philippics could not overcome craft supported by force. 
Olynthus, which Demosthenes tried to save, fell, and with it 
the barrier that embarrassed Macedonia the most (348). 
Athens, now menaced in Euboea and even in Attica, whither 
Macedonian troops had come to remove the trophies of Mara- 
thon and Salamis, signed a peace which Demosthenes him- 
self advised and which he negotiated with the king. 

Second Sacred War (346). Battle of Chaeronea (338).— 
While Athens confiding in this treaty gave herself up to 
festivals, Philip passed through Thermopylae, overwhelmed 
the Phocians and made them give him the vote which they 
had in the Amphictyonic Council (346). This was a de- 
cisive step, for, once a member of the Hellenic body, the 
king could make the Amphictyonic Council speak in ac- 
cordance with his interests and use it as his own instrument 
of oppression. Nevertheless, since he knew how to wait, 
he halted almost immediately in order to avoid any dan- 
gerous outbreak of despair, and turned his arms toward the 
Danube, which he made the boundary of his kingdom, and 
toward Thrace, where Phocion still prevented him from 
seizing the Greek colonies established on the Hellespont. 
While he was so far from Thermopylae, his agents worked 
for him in Greece, ^schines caused the management of a 
new sacred war against the Locrians to be intrusted to him. 
For the second time religion was going to ruin this far 
from religious people. Philip, on arriving in central Greece, 
seized Elatea. 

Demosthenes immediately broke silence. He reunited 
Athens and Thebes for a supreme effort, but Greek liberty 
was overthrown at Chaeronea (338). The victor did himself 
honor by his moderation, and in order to justify the supreme 



B.C. 336.] PHILIP OF MACEDON, AND DEMOSTHENES 77 

authority which he had just grasped, he had himself ap- 
pointed by the Amphictyonic Council general-in-chief of the 
Greeks against the Persians. He was about to repeat the 
expedition of Agesilaus, though with far larger forces. 

Macedon was now a powerful state extending from Ther- 
mopylae to the Danube, and from the Adriatic to the Black 
Sea. Its government had nothing to fear from internal 
troubles or pretenders to the throne. The aristocracy, the 
cause of previous disorders, had been won over by the glory 
of the monarch, by honors and offices, or were restrained by 
the hostages which they had been compelled to give that the 
royal guard might be composed entirely of young nobles. 
But death arrested Philip at the age of forty-seven in the 
midst of his plans. He was assassinated by a noble Pau- 
sanias, probably instigated by the Persians (336). 



78 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 336-332. 



VIII 

ALEXANDER 
(336-323) 

Submission of Greece to Alexander (336-334). — Great 
disturbances broke out at the news tbat Philip had left as 
his heir Alexander, a young man of twenty. However, 
Alexander rapidly subdued Thrace and lUyricum, van- 
quished the barbarians on both banks of the Danube, and, 
learning that the Macedonian garrison had been massacred 
at Thebes, arrived in BcEotia thirteen days after leaving the 
Danube. " Demosthenes called me a child," he said, " when 
I was in Illyricum, and a youth when I arrived in Thessaly. 
Under the walls of Athens I will show him that I am a 
man." He took Thebes, slew six thousand of its inhabi- 
tants, and sold thirty thousand into slavery. The terrified 
Greeks at Corinth conferred upon him the title, already 
bestowed upon his father, of general-in-chief for the Persian 
War. 

Expedition against Persia (334). Conquest of the Asiatic 
Coast and Egypt. — - He crossed the Hellespont with 30,000 
foot and 4500 horse, defeated at Granicus 110,000 Persians, 
then marched along the coast so as to shut Greece from the 
agents of Darius, and thus deprive them of the means of 
exciting disorders there. Darius tried to arrest him at Issus 
in Cilicia. Alexander vanquished him (333). Disdaining 
to pursue he continued the plan which he had marked out 
in the occupation of the maritime cities. Without anxiety 
he devoted seven months to the siege of Tyre, and spent 
another year in Egypt, where he sacrificed to the native 
gods so as to win over the inhabitants. He founded Alex- 
andria, and induced the priests of Ammon to bestow upon 
him the title of Son of the Gods, which the ancient Phar 
raohs had borne (332). 

Conquest of Persia. Death of Darius. Murder of Clitus 
(334-327). — After conquering the maritime provinces of 
the empire, Alexander traversed Palestine and Syria, 




, , Route of Alexander 
^J < Voyage of Nearchus 



CowrijI.i. 1898. L) T. V. Crowcll i Co. 




Eufrsvid liy Culloii, Ohiusn It Co.. K. Y. 



B.C. 332-327.] ALEXANDER 79 

crossed tlie Euphrates, where the Persians did not oppose 
his passage, and the Tigris, which they defended no better, 
and at last attacked and completely defeated Darius in the 
plain of Arbela (331). Sure that no army of the Persian 
king could resist his Macedonians, he allowed that prince 
to again flee toward his eastern provinces. He descended 
to Babylon, where he sacrificed to Bel, whose temple over- 
thrown by Xerxes he restored, and hurried to occupy the 
other capitals of Darius: Susa, which contained immense 
riches ; Pasargadae, the sanctuary of the empire ; and Persep- 
olis, which he burned, thereby announcing to the whole East 
that a new conqueror had seated himself upon the throne 
of Cyrus. With headlong speed he subdued, or caused his 
generals to subdue, the neighboring movintaineers. He en- 
tered Ecbatana a week after the king had left it, continued 
the pursuit and was on the point of again attacking him, 
when three satraps, whose prisoner the vmfortunate prince 
had become, cut the throat of Darius and left only a corpse 
for the conqueror. Bessus, one of the assassins, tried to 
make Bactriana a centre of resistance. Alexander gave 
him no time. He rapidly traversed Aria and Bactriana as 
far as the Oxus. Bessus, who had retreated beyond that 
river, was delivered into his hands, and a council of Medes 
and Persians surrendered him to the brother of Darius, who 
caused him to undergo a thousand tortures. 

Alexander wintered in those regions. On the shores of 
the laxartes he founded a new Alexandria, which he peopled 
with Greek mercenaries, invalid soldiers, and barbarians. 
The capture of the Sogdian Rock, the marriage of Alexan- 
der with Roxana, the daughter of a Persian nobleman, and 
the foundation of many cities completed the subjugation of 
Sogdiana, where the conqueror left great but also terrible 
memories. He tortured Philotas and his father, Parmenio, 
because of a conspiracy which they had not revealed, mur- 
dered Clitus during an orgy, and put to death the philoso- 
pher Callisthenes for a plot to which he was a stranger. 

Alexander beyond the Indus. His Return to Babylon, and 
Death (327-323). — The Persian Empire no longer existed. 
It was now the Macedonian Empire. Alexander did not 
find it large enough, and wished to add India thereto. Upon 
the banks of the Cophen he met an Indian king, Taxiles, 
who entreated his aid against Porus, another Indian monarch. 
His soldiers felled a whole forest to construct a fleet upon 



80 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 325. 

the Indus, and Porus was conquered and captured. " How- 
do you wish to be treated ? " Alexander asked his prisoner. 
" Like a king," replied Porus. The captive was allowed to 
retain his states, which were also enlarged, and was assigned 
the duty of maintaining the country in submission. Alex- 
ander wished to penetrate into the valley of the Ganges, 
but his army refused to go farther and he was obliged to 
halt. After marking the extreme limit of his triumphant 
course by twelve altars around which he celebrated games, 
he returned to the Indus, which he descended to the ocean, 
subjugating the people along the banks, founding cities, 
dockyards, and ports, and carefully exploring the mouths of 
the river. He returned to Babylon through the deserts of 
Gedrosia and Carmania, through which no army had ever 
marched. Meanwhile his admiral, Nearchus, coasted with 
the fleet along the shore and returned by the Persian Gulf 
that he might indicate to commerce the road to India. 

Notwithstanding the many recruits which Macedon and 
Greece had sent him, Alexander could not have founded so 
many cities and maintained his subjects in obedience, if he 
had not pursued a wise policy toward the conquered. He 
sacrificed to their gods, respected their customs, left the 
civil government in the hands of the natives, and endeavored 
to unite victors and vanquished by marriages, of which he 
himself set the example by wedding Barsina, or Statira, the 
daughter of Darius. The military forces alone remained in 
the hands of his Macedonians. He counted that the benefi- 
cent influence of commerce would create between East and 
West, between Persia and Greece, common interests and 
weld those many diverse peoples into one formidable em- 
pire. Death overtook him at Babylon (323) and put an end 
to his mighty plans. No one after him had sufficient 
strength or authority to take them up. When about to 
draw his last breath, he had given his ring to Perdiccas. 
His other lieutenants asked him to whom he left his crown. 
" To the most worthy, but I fear I shall have a bloody 
funeral." He was only thirty-two years of age and had 
reigned twelve. 

The Age of Alexander. — Great men again in the age of 
Philip and Alexander added to the glorious patrimony 
which their ancestors had bequeathed. Praxiteles, the most 
graceful of Greek sculptors, and the painter Pamphilus, the 
master of Apelles, followed Phidias, Polycletus, and Zeuxis. 



B.C. 323.] ALEXANDER 81 

Nevertheless art diminished. Taste became less pure and 
style less severe. Too much was yielded to form. Art 
spoke to the eye rather than to the mind. Eloquence and 
philosophy, however, showed no decline. The tribune of 
Athens resounded with the impassioned and virile accents of 
Demosthenes, Lycurgus, Hyperides, and Hegesippus. ^s- 
chines, the rival of Demosthenes, contributed the movement 
and splendor of his periods, and Phocion his virtue, the 
most powerful weapon of oratory. 

After the death of Socrates his disciples dispersed. 
Plato, the most illustrious of them all, had returned to 
Athens and taught in the gardens of Academus. The 
Greeks, charmed by the matchless grace of his speech, 
reported that his father was Apollo and that the bees of 
Hymettus had deposited their honey upon his lips in the 
cradle. Aristotle, his pupil and rival, the teacher of Alex- 
ander, has fastened upon himself the eternal attention of 
mankind by other merits. His vast and mighty genius 
desired to understand all, the laws of the human mind as 
well as the laws of nature. Philosophy still pursues the 
double path which those preeminent intellects marked out, 
idealistic with the one, rational and positive with the other. 
Xenophon, a gentle spirit and amiable narrator, ranks far 
below them. 



82 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 323-64. 



IX 

CONVERSION OF GREECE AND OP THE GREEK KING- 
DOMS INTO ROMAN PROVINCES 

(3»3-146) 

Dismemberment of Alexander's Empire. — Three months 
after Alexander's death, his wife Eoxana gave birth to 
Alexander Aigos. The conqueror left a natural son named 
Hercules; a half-brother, the imbecile Arrhideus, and two 
sisters, Cleopatra and Thessalonica. His imperious mother, 
Olympias, was still alive. After long debates Arrhideus 
and Alexander Aigos were both proclaimed. Antipater was 
placed over the European forces, Craterus was made a sort 
of guardian to Arrhideus, and Perdiccas became a general 
prime minister. Continual convulsions during twenty-four 
years resulted from this divided authority, and cost the lives 
of all the members of the royal family and of a majority of 
the generals. The empire was rent asunder along the lines 
of its ancient nationalities. Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, and 
Macedon were reconstructed after the decisive battle of 
Ipsus, where Antigonus made a last effort to restore unity 
(301). 

Kingdoms of Syria (201-64) and Egypt (301-30).— Seleu- 
cus Nicator, one of the victors of Ipsus, founded the dynasty 
of the Seleucidae, to whom he gave for capitals Seleucia and 
Antioch and for empire all the countries comprised between 
the Indus and the ^gean Sea. His son could not prevent 
the Gauls from settling in Galatia. Antiochus II, despite 
his surname of the God, saw two kingdoms rise in his east- 
ern provinces, that of the Bactrians, which did not last, and 
that of the Parthians, which renewed the Persian monarchy. 
Antiochus III the Great (224-187) ventured to attack the 
Romans, who vanquished him at Thermopylae (191) and 
Magnesia (190), wrested from him Asia on this side of the 
Tarsus, and reduced Syria itself to a Roman province (64). 

Egypt saw better days under the first of the Lagidae, all 



B.C. 301-30.] GREECE BECOMES A ROMAN PROVINCE 83 

of whom bore the name of Ptolemy. It was then a power- 
ful state, the centre of the world's commerce, the asylum 
of letters and science, with a magnificent library at Alexan- 
dria. But the clever kings were speedily succeeded by 
debauched, cruel, incapable sovereigns, and after them by 
foreign intervention. 

Thus Ptolemy Soter (301) added to his kingdom Cyre- 
naica, Cyprus, Coele-Syria, and Phoenicia. Philadelphus 
(285) developed the navy and maintained two successful 
wars, one against his brother Magas, governor of Cyrene, 
and the other against the king of Syria, who was unable to 
conquer Egypt. Euergetes (247) penetrated in Asia as far 
as Bactriana and in Africa to the interior of Ethiopia, while 
his lieutenants subjugated the coasts of Arabia Felix to 
secure the trade-route to India. Philopator (222) began the 
decline, which Epiphanes (205) hastened by placing himself 
under the tutelage of the Romans, who thenceforth con- 
stantly intermeddled in Egyptian affairs till the days of Caesar 
and Cleopatra. The latter was a dangerous siren, to whom 
Antony sacrificed his honor, his fortune, and his life. Octa- 
vius resisted her, and the queen, threatened with adorning a 
Roman triumph, died from the poison of an asp. Egypt 
became a Roman province (30), as the kingdom of Perga- 
mos in Asia Minor had done (129) by virtue of the testa- 
ment of its last king. 

Kingdom of Macedon (301-146). Cynocephalae and Pydna. 
— Macedon did not exist so long, but fell with greater honor, 
for her last two kings dared withstand Rome, who had 
become through her triumph over Carthage the greatest 
military power in the world. The descendants of Antigo- 
nus, who was vanquished at Ipsus, had secured for themselves 
the throne of Macedon, and like Philip and Alexander tried 
to obtain the supreme power over Greece. During the 
second Punic War, the Romans by the conquest of lUyri- 
cum gained a footing on the Greek peninsula. Philip of 
Macedon tried to drive them into the sea, and made with 
Hannibal (215) a treaty which was to assure him the posses- 
sion of Greece ; but a defeat on the banks of the Aotis forced 
him to beat a rapid retreat to his kingdom. The Roman 
senate, taking advantage of the enmities which his ambition 
had aroused, announced itself the protector of the nations 
threatened by him. He had the impudence to provoke 
Rome, now rid of Hannibal. The reply was prompt and 



84 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS [b.c. 322-221. 

terrible. The legions crushed at Cynocephalae the phalanx, 
which had conquered Greece and Asia (197). His son 
Perseus was no more fortunate at Pydna (168). In 146 
Macedon was effaced from the list of nations and the king- 
dom of Alexander was henceforth nothing but a Koman 
province. 

Death of Demosthenes (322). The Achsean League (251- 
146). — While the successors of Alexander were disputing 
the fragments of his purple robe in Asia, Greece made an 
effort to recover her liberty. Demosthenes, who had re- 
mained the soul of the national party, and Athens, who 
hoped to be able to break once more the dominion of the 
stranger, stirred up the Lanian war. It began well but 
ended in disaster. Demosthenes was banished and took 
poison (322). On the base of the statue which, later on, 
his fellow-countrymen erected to his memory, these words 
were inscribed : " If thy power had equalled thy eloquence, 
Greece would not to-day be captive." Phocion perished five 
years later by the order of the Macedonians. However, the 
Greek cities profiting by the disorders in Macedon regained 
their liberty; but the foreign rule when it withdrew left 
behind, like an impure deposit, tyrants in every town. Sup- 
ported by mercenaries, these men terrorized over the citizens 
and extorted from their cowardice the gold which served to 
rivet their bonds. One man, Aratus, undertook to overthrow 
these detestable rulers. First he reconstituted the ancient 
federation of the twelve Achaean cities. Then he delivered 
Sicyon (251), Corinth, Megara, Trezene, Argos, Mantineia, 
Epidaurus, and Megalopolis from their tyrants, and made 
alliance with the ^tolian league in order to raise a barrier 
against the ambition of Macedon. To extend his patriotic 
work to central Greece, he aided in the deliverance of Athens 
and Orchomenus. A few efforts more and the Achsean league 
would have embraced the whole of Hellas. 

Unfortunately, Sparta revived with a spasm of reform. 
Cleomenes made all property common, reestablished the pub- 
lic meals and reconstituted with foreigners a new Spartan 
people which immediately contended with the Achaeans, and 
disputed their preponderance in the Peloponnesus. Aratus 
was constrained to implore assistance from the Macedoni- 
ans, who defeated Cleomenes at Sellasia (221). This defeat 
crushed new Sparta, but placed the Achaeans in depen- 
dence upon Macedon, who made everything bend before 



B.C. 221-146.] GREECE BECOMES A ROMAN PROVINCE 85 

her. The Eomans becoming disquieted at this reviving 
strength prepared to intervene so as to destroy it. The 
violent deeds of Philip and the murder of Aratus gave 
them numerous allies, and the ^Etolians helped win the bat- 
tle of Cynocephalae. Victorious Rome took nothing for 
herself, but divided everything in order to weaken all. She 
destroyed the leagues in Thessaly and central Greece by 
declaring that every city should be free. The Greeks 
applauded, not without perceiving that this liberty would 
lead them to servitude. Philopoemen of Megalopolis, the 
worthy successor of Aratus, at the head of the Achaean 
league tried to delay the moment of inevitable ruin. Lace- 
dsemon, which had fallen into the hands of the tyrants, was 
a hotbed of intrigue, Philopoemen slew with his own hand 
in battle the tyrant Machanidas, and forced his successor 
Nabis to raise the siege of Messene. Entering Sparta as a 
victor, he united it to the Achaean league. It was not the 
policy of Rome that the whole Peloponnesus should form a 
single state. Her envoys urged Messene to revolt. Philo- 
poemen in an expedition against her fell from his horse, was 
captured and condemned to drink hemlock (183). 

During the war against Perseus, the Achaeans secretly 
but fervently desired his success, and for this Rome called 
them to account after the victory of Pydna. A thousand of 
their best citizens were deported to Italy (168). Released 
seventeen years afterwards, they brought back to their coun- 
try an imprudent hatred of Rome. When the senate an- 
nounced that Corinth, Sparta, and Argos must cease to form 
part of the league, the Achaeans flew to arms and fought the 
last battle for liberty (146) at Leucopetra, near Corinth. 
Corinth was burned by Mummius, Greece reduced to a prov- 
ince, and this people, who had held so great a place in the 
world, were lost in the ocean of the Roman power. 



86 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS 



SUMMARY OF GREEK HISTORY 

Services Rendered by the Greeks to General Civilization. 

— Epicharmes, the creator of Greek comedy, said twenty- 
four centuries ago : " All blessings are bought from the 
gods by labor." What the poet said, Greece proved. By 
dint of an activity, of which no other people had until 
then ever furnished an example, did the Greeks succeed in 
taking so high a rank among the nations. They covered 
the coasts of the Mediterannean with flourishing cities. 
They raised a poor and petty country to mastery of the 
world by arms and commerce, but, above all, by civiliza- 
tion. 

Among the sciences by establishing the methods or pro- 
cesses they also created mathematics, geometry, mechanics, 
and astronomy, which Egypt and Chaldsea had only out- 
lined. They laid the foundations of botany and medicine. 

In the sciences indeed we have advanced much farther 
than they by following the path of patient investigation and 
pure reasoning which Hippocrates, Archimedes, and Aris- 
totle opened up, but in letters, arts, and philosophy the 
Greeks have remained the eternal masters. The E/Omans 
and the moderns have been only their pupils. 

They carried to perfection the epic poem with Homer; 
the elegy with Simonides; the ode with Pindar; tragedy 
with ^schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, who succeeded in 
making it grandly religious, patriotic and moral; comedy 
with Aristophanes and Menander; history with Herodotus 
and Thucydides ; forensic and legal eloquence with Demos- 
thenes, ^schines, Isocrates, and Lysias. 

In the arts the world still follows their impulse and imi- 
tates their models. While varying their three orders, we 
copy their architecture. Their mutilated statues are the 
pride of our museums. Our decorative arts draw inspira- 
tion from the graceful designs of their vases or from the 
ornaments of their temples and tombs. The moderns have 



SUMMARY OF GREEK HISTORY 87 

created only one new art, music, and developed one ancient 
art, painting. 

In philosophy, as they had no holy books and conse- 
quently no body of fixed doctrines, no sacerdotal class 
jealously guarding for itself both dogma and learning, no 
social aristocracy limiting the field of thought, they allowed 
the utmost freedom to the mind. Thus they created moral 
and political philosophy in entire independence. They 
made it the domain of all and assigned as its only aim the 
quest of truth. Thereby they threw open to the human 
intellect an immense horizon. That which feeling only 
vaguely attained, reason proceeded to grasp, and with un- 
equalled power. What have twenty centuries added to the 
philosophical discoveries of the Hellenes ? 

In short, such was the fruitfulness of their prolific nature, 
that on the very ruins of Greek society sprang forth that 
elevated moral doctrine of stoicism which, combined with 
and modified by the Christian spirit, is still capable of 
developing great characters. 

The East, earlier than the Hellenes, gave birth to sages, 
but the people below them were only herds, docile to the 
voice of the master. In Greece, humanity became conscious 
of itself. There man assumed full possession of the facul- 
ties planted in him by the Creator, and of the sentiment 
of his own personal dignity. Slavery, preserved in the 
cities by the politicians and justified in books by the phi- 
losophers, was a relic of that past from which the emanci- 
pation of the freest nations is always slow. 

Defects of the Political and Eeligious Spirit among the 
Greeks. — Still, this picture has its shadows. Admirable 
political theorists, with Aristotle at their head, they were 
able to organize nothing but cities. The idea of a great 
state was unwelcome to them. Never, except partially 
and for a brief space during the Persian wars, or too late 
at the time of the Achaean league, did they consent to join 
their forces and destinies in fraternal union. Thus they 
lost their independence on that day when the half-barbaric, 
half-Hellenic, wholly military Macedonian monarchy was 
formed at their gates. To Kome their subjugation was 
still more easy. 

The Greek religion, so favorable to art and poetry, was 
less so to virtue. By representing the gods, personifica- 
tions of natural forces, as enslaved by the most shameful 



88 HISTORY OF THE GREEKS 

passions, committing theft, incest, and adultery, breathing 
hatred and revenge, it obscured the idea of uprightness, 
and rendered evil legitimate by the example of those who 
should have been the incarnation of good. Then when 
human reason contradicted the divine legends, Greek poly- 
theism at last found itself in that fatal condition wherein 
religion and the moral code are opposed to each other. 
The latter attacked the former and won the battle. The 
gods fell from Olympus. Grass grew in the courtyards 
of the temples. This would have been a gain, if the de- 
throned deities had been replaced by such a virile system 
of instruction as would enlighten and purify human reason. 
That virile instruction was found here and there on the 
lips of the poets and philosophers, but the masses did not 
listen. Delivered to the grovelling superstitions in which 
among the weak the great beliefs end, Greek religion was 
without defence when assailed by the Asiatic corruption 
introduced by the conquests of Alexander. Gold depraved 
alike men and institutions. The mercenaries of the Seleu- 
cidse and of the Ptolemies, men without a country inas- 
much as without liberty, lost together with their manly 
virtues the generous self-devotion which had made them 
so great at Marathon and Thermopylae, and the self-respect 
and reverence for the true and the beautiful which had 
formed so many good citizens and created so many master- 
pieces. Greece from time to time did still produce some 
superior men, but only as a long-time fertile but exhausted 
soil yields at intervals a scanty fruit. 



HISTOEY OF THE ROMANS 



ROME. THE ANCIENT ROMAN CONSTITUTION 
(753-366) 

The Royal Period (753-510).— The fertile plains of 
Latium and Etruria meet under the Sabine mountains on 
the banks of the Tiber, the largest stream of the Italian 
peninsula. At some distance from its junction with the 
Anio, this river flows between nine hills, two of which, Ja- 
niculus and Vaticanus, dominate the right bank, while the 
other seven distinguish the left. It was there that Eome 
arose. 

Legend, which explains every beginning and delights in 
the marvellous, recognizes seven kings of Rome : Romulus, 
the son of Mars, nursed by a she-wolf, the founder upon the 
Palatine of the present city ; Numa, the religious king, 
whom the nymph Egeria inspired; Tullus Hostilius, who 
overthrew Alba Longa after the combat between the Ho- 
ratii and Curiatii; Ancus Martins, the founder of Ostia; 
Tarquinius Priscus, who perhaps owed his crown to an 
Etruscan conquest of Rome ; Servius Tullius, the legislator ; 
and lastly Tarquinius Superbus, the abominable tyrant 
whom the Romans expelled. 

History, more sedate, has many doubts concerning this 
royal period of which the only glimpse is afforded by 
charming tales. Nevertheless it credits the foundation 
upon the Palatine of Roma Quadrata, a city whose walls 
have recently been discovered. This city exercised its 
robust youth against its Latin, Sabine and Etruscan neigh- 
bors, and grew so rapidly that Servius was obliged to erect 
those extensive walls which sufficed during the whole period 



90 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 51(M93. 

of the republic. It had customs, institutions and a political 
organization such as would require much time to develop. 
We must admit that under her last king Rome was already 
the capital of Latium, the strongest power in Italy. Her 
inhabitants constituted two peoples, as it were the patri- 
cians and the plebeians. The patricians consisted of fami- 
lies, each of which formed a clan with its own gods, its 
common property and its chief. The latter was at once 
high priest of the domestic altar, judge without appeal over 
his wife and children, patron whom his clients obeyed, 
absolute master of his slaves, and in the forum and at the 
curia a member of the sovereign people who elected the 
prince, enacted the laws and decided questions of peace and 
war. The plebeians were a confused mass of conquered 
captives, transported to the city, of foreigners settled there, 
and perhaps of natives dispossessed by the original con- 
quest. They had nothing in common with the patricians, 
neither gods nor marriage nor political rights. Nevertheless 
to Servius is attributed the division: of the city into four 
quarters or urban tribes; of the territory into twenty-six 
cantons or rural tribes; of the people, patricians and ple- 
beians, into live classes according to wealth, and into 193 
hundreds or centuries. The first class alone had ninety- 
eight centuries. After the kings were expelled, as each 
century represented one vote, it had ninety-eight votes, 
while all the other classes combined had only ninety-five. 

The Republic. Consuls. Tribunes (510-493). — The patri- 
cians overthrew Tarquin and replaced the king by two con- 
suls, chosen annually by them from among themselves. This 
was therefore an aristocratic revolution. Brutus, one of the 
consuls, discovered that his sons were implicated in a con- 
spiracy to recall the king. He ordered that they should be 
put to death and stoically witnessed their execution, Tar- 
quin sought revenge by rousing all the neighboring peoples 
against Rome. The bloody victory of Lake Eegillus saved 
the city, but her strength was undermined by debts incurred 
by the losses and expenses of the recent wars. The Roman 
law favored the creditors, who abused their rights, and the 
poor in resentment would not allow themselves to be en- 
rolled. Then the senate created the dictatorship, an abso- 
lute magistracy from which there was no appeal. Its power, 
more arbitrary than that of the kings had ever been, was to 
last six months. The people were terrified and yielded, but 



B.C. 403^48.] ROME. THE ANCIENT ROMAN CONSTITUTION 91 

the violence of the creditors increased. At last the poor 
abandoned the city and retired to Mons Sacer. They came 
back only after tribunes had been promised them, who 
should be annually elected from the plebeians and by their 
veto could reverse the decisions of the consuls and senate. 
At first the tribunes employed their power as a shield 
wherewith to defend the people. Later on they used it to 
attack the nobles and make themselves masters of the republic. 

The Decemvirate and the Twelve Tables. — The years 
which elapsed between the establishment of the tribuneship 
and that of the decemvirate were filled by petty wars and 
internal troubles. The tribune Tereutillus Arsa in 461 
demanded that a code, written and known to the citizens, 
should be drawn up. For a long time the patricians re- 
sisted. At last the proposition was passed, and decemvirs 
were elected with unlimited powers to draw up the new 
laws. One of them, Appius Claudius, tried to usurp the 
authority. He fell in consequence of an outrage, which 
forced a father to kill his daughter to save her from dis- 
honor (449). 

In the legislation of the Twelve Tables, published by the 
decemvirs (448), attacks upon property were cruelly pun- 
ished. The thief might be killed with impunity at night 
and even during the day if he defended himself. " Who- 
ever sets fire to a lot of grain shall be bound, beaten with 
rods and burned." " The insolvent debtor shall be sold or 
cut in pieces." For offences regarded as less grave, we find 
two systems of penalties in use among all barbarous peo- 
ples, the talion or corporal reprisals, and settlement by 
agreement. " Whoever breaks a limb shall pay three hun- 
dred Roman pounds to the injured person. If he does not 
settle with him, let him be subjected to the lex talionis." 

However some provisions favored the plebeians. The 
rate of interest was diminished and guaranties for individ- 
ual liberty were provided. " Let the false witness and the 
corrupt judge be hurled from the rock," said the law. 
"The people shall always have the right of appeal from the 
sentence of the magistrates. The people alone in their 
assemblies by centuries shall have the power to pronounce 
sentence of death." Thus criminal jurisdiction was be- 
stowed upon the people. Thus the power passed to the 
comitia centuriata, where according to their property patri-. 
cians and plebeians were mingled without distinction. 



92 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. M8-4M, 

The general character of the law was another advantage 
for the plebeians. "No more personal laws." The civil 
legislation of the Twelve Tables recognized only Roman 
citizens. Its provisions were not made for one order or one 
class. Its formula was always '' If any one," inasmuch as 
patrician and plebeian, senator and priest and laborer, were 
equal in its eyes. Thus, by ignoring differences formerly 
so profound, was proclaimed the definite union of the two 
peoples. It was a new people, all the citizens in a body, 
which now held sovereign authority and was the source of 
all power and all right. " Whatever the people shall ordain 
shall constitute the final law." Thus the people had at- 
tained through the Twelve Tables several material benefits, 
which may be summed up as civil equality. Not yet eligi- 
ble to many of&ces, their political equality was still in the 
future. 

The Plebeians attain Admission to All Offices (448-286). — 
The revolution of 510, instituted by the patricians, had ben- 
efited only the aristocracy. That of 448, instituted by the 
people, benefited only the people. The new consuls, Hora- 
tius and Valerius, forbade under pain of death that any 
magistracy without appeal should ever be created, gave the 
force of law to the plebiscites or votes passed in the 
assembly of the tribes, and repeated the anathema pro- 
nounced against any one who should attack the inviolability 
of the tribuneship. Nevertheless the prohibition of inter- 
marriage and the occupation of all offices by the patricians 
still maintained an insulting distinction between the two 
orders. In 445 the tribune Canuleius demanded the aboli- 
tion of the prohibition regarding marriage, and his col- 
leagues demanded that plebeians should be eligible to the 
consulship. This was equivalent to demanding political 
equality. The patricians were indignant, but the people 
withdrew to the Janiculine Hill. The senate, thinking 
that custom would be stronger than law, accepted the prop- 
osition concerning intermarriage. Instead of granting the 
consulship to the plebeians, they diminished its functions. 
Two new magistrates, called censors, were appointed in 444, 
at first for five years and later for eighteen months. These 
officers were to take the census, administer the public do- 
mains and finances, regulate the classes, draw up the list of 
the senate and of the equestrian order, and have control of 
the city police. The other consular duties — military and 



B.C. 444-286.] ROME. THE ANCIENT ROMAN CONSTITUTION 93 

judicial administration, presidency of the assemblies and of 
the senate, and protection of the city and laws — were 
divided and intrusted to three, four, and sometimes six 
generals under the name of military tribunes. 

The constitution of 444 made plebeians eligible to the 
military tribuneship, yet until the year 400 no plebeian at- 
tained it. Meanwhile Rome was carrying on a five years' 
siege of Veii, which the patrician Camillus finally captured. 
The Gallic invasion interrupted the political strife, that 
burst forth more fiercely after the danger was past. The 
tribunes, Licinius Stolo and Sextius, in 376, renewed the 
demand for division of the consulship, and proposed an 
agrarian law limiting to 500 acres the amount of land which 
a citizen could own. The crisis of the struggle had arrived. 
The same two tribunes were reelected for ten successive 
years. In vain did the senate persuade their colleagues to 
interpose their veto. Twice did they have recourse to the 
dictatorship. The dictator, Camillus, abdicated when threat- 
ened with a fine of 500 pounds. Against the tribunes the 
patricians invoked the sanctity of religion, for not a single 
plebeian was a priest. At last the patricians agreed that 
" instead of two custodians of the Sibylline books, ten shall 
be appointed, five of whom shall be plebeians." The year 
366 beheld for the first time a plebeian consul. Then the 
patricians created the praetorship, an office exercising the 
judicial functions of the consuls. To this the plebeians be- 
came eligible in 337. The dictatorship was opened to them 
in 355, the censorship in 350, the proconsulship in 326, and 
the augurship in 302. Two additional laws assured political 
equality and founded that union at home and that strength 
abroad which enabled Rome to triumph over every obsta- 
cle. The one imposed the plebiscite equally on the two 
orders, and declared that both consuls might be plebeians. 
The other summarized and confirmed all the rights the 
plebeians had acquired. 



94 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 390-343. 



II 

THE CONQUEST OF ITALY 
(343-265) 

Capture of Rome by the Gauls (390). — The capture of 
Veil, a great Etruscan city, made Eome preponderant in 
central Italy. The Gauls, established for two centuries in 
the valley of the Po, threatened to destroy the growing state 
at its centre. They besieged Clusium, which had refused 
them lands, and marched upon Rome. They defeated her 
armies on the banks of the Allia, and made their way to the 
foot of the Capitol, where the senate and the young men 
had shut themselves up. They maintained a close siege, 
until an invasion of the Veneti called them back to their 
own country, whereupon they consented to accept a ransom. 
As Camillus, on being appointed dictator, had destroyed 
some of their detachments, Eoman vanity represented these 
petty successes as a complete victory. 

It took Rome nearly half a century to recover. Mean- 
while Camillus, Manlius Torquatus, and Valerius Corvus 
defeated several rebellious Latin tribes and their Gallic 
allies, and captured some of the Etruscan cities. They 
subjugated southern Etruria and most of Latium, and ap- 
proached the Samnite borders. Then burst out the Samnite 
war, or the war of Italian independence. All the nations 
of the peninsula entered the lists in turn, always commit- 
ting the fatal mistake of not attacking together. This war 
lasted seventy-eight years, desolated all central Italy, and 
placed the entire peninsula under the heel of Rome. 

The Samnite Wars. — The wealthy city of Capua, being 
threatened by the Samnites, submitted to the Romans, who 
defeated her adversaries, but the hostile attitude of the 
Latins prevented them from following up their successes. 
The Latins demanded full political equality with the 
Romans. On the senate's refusal a difficult war began. 
In deference to discipline, Manlius Torquatus condemned 




C-wriJlil. I89». >.j T. V, Cr..«,-n A C. 



ITALY 

DIVIDED 8V AUGUSTUS 
I.NTO ELEVEN KEfJIOXS 

ROMAN MILES 

< _1 , 

1110 \:>n 



EiigravfC I,) C.-llf>t. Uliuiun ii Co.. N. V. 



B.C. 340-295.] THE CONQUEST OF ITALY 95 

to death his own son who had fought without orders, and 
Decius sacrificed himself to save the legions. Varying con- 
ditions, imposed on the Latin cities after the victory, 
assured their obedience. 

In 327 the Samnites, to expel the Romans from Cam- 
pania, incited the city of Palaepolis to revolt. Defeated by 
Papirius Cursor and Fabius Maximus, who commanded the 
Romans, the Samnites took their revenge at the Caudine 
Forks, where they surrounded the whole army, forced it to 
pass under the yoke, and to sign a humiliating treaty of 
peace. The senate repudiated the treaty and surrendered 
the consuls to the Samnites who were unwilling to receive 
them. Finally Publilius Pliilo penetrated victoriously into 
Samnium, while Papirius subdued Apulia on the farther 
side of the Samnite mountains. The senate endeavored to 
confine its formidable foes in the Apennines by a line of 
fortresses or military colonies. 

The northern peoples of the peninsula now came to the 
aid of the Samnites. Fifty or sixty thousand Etruscans fell 
upon the Roman colony of Sutrium but were defeated by 
Fabius near Perusia. He systematically devastated Sam- 
nium till its exhausted tribes begged for an end of a war 
which had already lasted more than a generation. They 
retained their territory and the externals of independence, 
but agreed to recognize "the majesty of the Roman people." 
Circumstances were soon to show what the senate meant by 
this term. 

The Samnites with the Sabines, Etruscans, Umbrians 
and Gauls rose in general revolt. At Rome the tribunals 
were closed. All able-bodied citizens were enrolled, and 
an army was raised, at least 90,000 strong. The massacre 
of a whole legion near Camerinum opened to the Senones 
the passage of the Apennines. Should they effect their 
junction with the Umbrians and Etruscans, the consular 
army was doomed. Fabius by a diversion recalled the 
Etruscans to the defence of their homes, and then hastened 
to encounter the Gauls in the plains of Sentinum. The 
shock was terrible. Seven thousand Romans had already 
perished on the left wing which was commanded by Decius, 
when the consul sacrificed himself, imitating the example 
of his father. The barbarians retreated in disorder and 
returned to their country. The destruction of a Samnite 
legion and the defeat of Pontius Herennius, the victor of the 



96 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 290-275. 

Caudine Forks, finally wrung from this obstinate nation 
the confession of its defeat. A treaty, whose clauses are 
unknown, ranged them among the allies of Kome. To hold 
them in check Venusia was occupied hj a powerful colony. 

The centre of Italy thus submitted to the Roman suprem- 
acy or the Roman alliance. In the north the Etruscans 
were still hostile and the Gauls had forgotten their defeat 
at Sentinum. In the south Samnite bands wandered among 
the mountains of Calabria. The Lucanians were uneasy, 
and the Greeks with apprehension beheld the approach of 
the Roman rule. Tarentum especially manifested dissatis- 
faction. Still the union of so many peoples was impossible. 
The only real moment of serious danger was when the 
Etruscans once destroyed a Roman army. The senate re- 
plied by the utter extermination of the Senones. The Boii, 
another Gallic tribe, when endeavoring to avenge their 
brethren, were themselves crushed together with the Etrus- 
cans near Lake Vadimo (283). Northern like Central Italy 
then acknowledged the Roman sway. 

Pyrrhus. — Tarentum alone held out in arms but realized 
her weakness too late. She summoned to her assistance 
Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. On arriving in that wealthy and 
luxurious city, Pyrrhus closed the baths and theatres and 
compelled the citizens to arm themselves. At the first 
battle near Heraclea the elephants, with which the Romans 
were unacquainted, threw their ranks into disorder. They 
left 15,000 men on the field, but Pyrrhus had lost 13,000. 
"Another such victory," he exclaimed, ''and I shall return 
to Epirus without an army." He sent his minister Cineas 
to Rome to propose peace. " Let Pyrrhus first leave Italy," 
replied the aged Appius, " and then we will see about treat- 
ing with him." Cineas was ordered to quit Rome that 
very day. "The senate," he said on his return, "seemed 
to me an assembly of kings." 

Pyrrhus tried to surprise the city, but all its citizens 
were soldiers. He could only gaze at the walls from a dis- 
tance. A second battle near Asculum, where a third Decius 
sacrificed himself, proved that he was only wearing out his 
forces in vain against this determined people. He crossed 
to Sicily to fight the Carthaginians who were besieging 
Syracuse. Though he raised the siege and drove the Afri- 
cans back to Lilybseum, he soon wearied of this expedition 
and returned to Italy. A defeat at Beneventum drove the 



B.C. 275-202.] THE CONQUEST OF ITALY 97 

royal adventurer back to Greece, Undertaking to conquer 
Macedon, he was proclaimed its king but perished miser- 
ably at the siege of Argos. Tarentum, thus abandoned, 
opened its gates (272). Graecia Magna, like northern and 
central Italy, was subdued. 

The Gauls. — The Cisalpine Gauls still inspired a legiti- 
mate fear. Receiving the news that they had called for an 
army of their transalpine compatriots, the senate declared 
"emergency" and put on foot 700,000 soldiers, 500,000 of 
whom were furnished by the Italians. The victory of 
Telamon averted all danger and Marcellus slew their king 
with his own hand. Eoman colonies, sent to the banks of 
the Po, overawed Cisalpine Gaul. The barbarians then 
implored the help of Hannibal but, satisfied to be delivered 
by his victories, did not themselves rise en masse to help 
him crush Eome. After the battle of Zama the senate 
again took measures against them. All the Boii emigrated, 
going in search of other habitations on the banks of the 
Danube, and thus delivered their rich country and the bar- 
riers of the Alps to the Eomans. 



98 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 264-256. 



in 

THE PUNIC WARS 
(S64-146) 

First Punic War (264-241). Conquest of Sicily. —Car- 
thage, a colony of Tyre, had extended her sway from 
Numidia to the frontiers of Cyrenaica, organized an im- 
mense caravan traffic in the interior of Africa and seized 
the control of the western Mediterranean. While Rome 
was contending with the Etruscans and the Italian Greeks, 
the Carthaginians had applauded her successes and had 
signed friendly treaties. The absolute victory of Rome 
filled them with consternation. With alarm they beheld 
a single power ruling over the beautiful country which was 
bathed by the Tuscan, the Adriatic and the Ionian seas. 

Sicily speedily became the cause of war between the two 
republics. Neither could abandon to a rival that splen- 
did island which lies in the centre of the Mediterranean, 
touches Italy and looks out upon Africa. Carthage had 
been there long. Rome was invited thither by Mamertine 
mercenaries who had mastered Messina, which Hiero of 
Syracuse and the Carthaginians were besieging. The 
Romans delivered the city, defeated Hiero and imposed 
upon him a treaty to which he remained faithful for fifty 
years. Finally they expelled the Carthaginians from the 
interior of the island. The latter retained their seaports 
inasmuch as they were masters at sea. One fleet, con- 
structed by the Romans and armed with powerful grap- 
pling irons, defeated the Carthaginian vessels in the first 
encounter. Another naval battle gained by Regulus at 
Ecnomos decided Rome to make a descent upon Africa. 
In a few months Carthage found herself reduced to her 
walls. The Lacedaemonian Xanthippus changed the aspect 
of affairs. After weakening Regulus by successive skir- 
mishes, he defeated him in one great battle and destroyed 
his army. The war was again transferred to Sicily and 



B.C. 251-216.] THE PUNIC WARS 99 

languished there for years. The victory of Metellus at 
Panormus revived the hopes of the Eomans. Eegulus was 
sent by Carthage to demand peace, which he exhorted the 
senate to refuse, and on his return is said to have been put 
to death with torture. But a great general had just arrived 
in Sicily, Hamilcar, the father of Hannibal. Fortifying 
himself at Eryx, he held the Eomans in check for six 
years. Under these conditions the war might have dragged 
on many years longer, had not patriotism given to the 
senate a new fleet, that rendered the Eomans supreme at 
sea. Hamilcar could not be provisioned. Carthage was 
compelled to end a ruinous war. She abandoned Sicily, 
restored all her prisoners without ransom and in the course 
of ten years paid 3200 Euboean talents. 

War of the Mercenaries against Carthage (241-238). — 
The soldiers of Carthage were not citizens but mercenaries. 
These mercenaries rebelled and for three years Cartha- 
ginian Africa was desolated by the Libyan war. Hamilcar 
delivered his country from this scourge, but fell under sus- 
picion and was exiled to Spain, whose conquest he under- 
took. In a few years the whole country as far as the Ebro 
was subdued by him and his son-in-law Hasdrubal. Eome 
in alarm stopped their progress by a treaty which stipulated 
the liberty of Saguntum, a Grseco-Latin city, south of the 
Ebro. 

Second Punic War (218-201). — Hannibal, the son of 
Hamilcar, wishing at any cost to renew the war against 
the Eomans, attacked and destroyed this town without 
waiting for orders from Carthage. With a carefully 
equipped army he crossed the Pyrenees, the Ehone and 
the Alps. This audacious expedition consumed half of his 
forces but brought him into the midst of his allies, the 
Cisalpine Gauls. The consul Scipio was first beaten near 
the Ticinus in a cavalry engagement. A more serious 
affair on the banks of the Trebia drove the Eomans from 
Cisalpine Gaul. In the following year they lost in Etruria, 
near Lake Thrasymenus, another sanguinary battle, and 
Hannibal was able to reach the centre and south of Italy. 
Thanks to the wise delay of the dictator Eabius several 
months passed without any fresh disaster. The awful bat- 
tle of Cannge, in 216, cost the legions 50,000 men. Capua 
with a part of southern Italy believed that the Eomans were 
lost and renounced their allegiance. Eome was a marvel 



100 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 215-205. 

of constancy. She abandoned offensive warfare, fortified 
the strongholds, and tried by a line of intrenched places to 
hem in the general who thus far had been so fortunate in 
battle. Before this circle was complete Hannibal quitted 
Campania. 

Since Carthage sent him no assistance, he sought to rouse 
Sardinia, Sicily and Macedon. He summoned from Spain 
his brother Hasdrubal with a new army of Spaniards over 
the route which he himself had traced. But Sardinia was 
checked, rebellious Syracuse was taken by Marcellus de- 
spite the machines of Archimedes, and Philip of Macedon, 
vanquished on the banks of the Aotis and threatened through 
the wiles of Rome by many Greek peoples, could not bring 
his phalanxes to assist Hannibal. 

While her enemy made these fruitless efforts, Rome 
armed twenty legions, pressed Hannibal harder every day 
in Apulia and Lucania and waged a fierce war against 
Capua, to make a terrible example of that city which had 
been the first to give the signal of defection. To save it 
Hannibal forced his way to the very walls of Rome, but as 
vainly as Pyrrhus. Capua fell and its entire population 
was sold into slavery. Only one hope was left to Hannibal. 
His brother Hasdrubal was bringing him 60,000 men. Met 
on the banks of the Metaurus by the two consuls, Hasdrubal 
perished there with his whole army. Nevertheless Han- 
nibal held out five years longer in the recesses of Brutium, 
until Scipio forced him from Italy by besieging Carthage. 

The two Scipios, Cneus and Cornelius, had been fighting 
for years in Spain. After brilliant successes they were 
overcome by superior forces and perished. Marcius, a 
young knight, saved the few survivors and confidence was 
already returning, when Publius Scipio, barely twenty -four 
years of age, the son of Cornelius, arrived to take command. 
At the very beginning he distinguished himself by a daring 
stroke in the surprise of Carthagena, the arsenal of the 
Carthaginians in the peninsula. Aided by the Spaniards, 
whom his gentleness had won over, he defeated Hasdrubal, 
but allowed him to escape. Then he crossed to Africa 
where he persuaded the Numidian king, Syphax, to sign 
an alliance with Rome. 

Being rewarded for his successes by the consulship, he 
resolved to attack Carthage itself. Despite the opposition 
of Fabius, whom such rashness appalled, he landed his 



B.C. 205-149.] THE PUNIC WARS 101 

army in Africa. Though the Numidians on whom he 
counted failed him he routed all the armies sent against 
him and left Carthage, which he threatened with a siege, 
no other alternative than the recall of Hannibal. That 
unequalled general was himself defeated at his last battle 
at Zama. To his honor Scipio did not demand the extradi- 
tion of Hannibal but imposed the following conditions: 
Carthage might retain her laws and her African possessions, 
but must give up the prisoners and deserters, must surrender 
all her ships except ten, also all her elephants, and was to 
tame no more elephants in future; she must make no war, 
even in Africa, without the consent of Rome, and must 
raise no foreign mercenary troops; she must pay 10,000 
talents in fifty years, must indemnify Massinissa and 
recognize him as an ally. To Scipio were delivered 4000 
prisoners, a large number of fugitives whom he crucified 
or beheaded, and 500 ships which he burned on the open 
sea. Carthage was disarmed. That she might never re- 
cover, Scipio placed at her side a relentless enemy in 
Massinissa whom he recognized as king of Numidia. 

Returning to Rome Scipio received a magnificent triumph. 
He gained the name of Africanus and was offered the con- 
sulship and dictatorship for life. Thus Rome forgot her 
laws to honor her fortunate general. She offered Scipio 
what she was afterwards to allow Caesar to take. Zama was 
not only the end of the second Punic War but also the begin- 
ning of universal conquest. 

Third Punic War (149-146). Destruction of Carthage. — 
After Zama the existence of Carthage was only one long 
death agony. In 193 Massinissa robbed her of the rich 
territory of Emporia, a few years afterward of other large 
tracts of land, and finally of the whole province of Tysca 
with sixty-three cities. The Carthaginians complained to 
Rome, and the Romans promised justice; but Massinissa 
retained the disputed territory. Cato was sent as arbi- 
trator. He was astonished and indignant at finding Car- 
thage wealthy, populous and prosperous. Returning with 
hatred in his heart, he henceforth closed his speeches with 
the invariable words, " Furthermore, I think Carthage must 
be destroyed" (Delenda est Carthago). 

One day Carthage resisted an attack of Massinissa. The 
senate denounced this violation of the treaty. The two 
consuls immediately disembarked in Africa with 80; 000 



102 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 146. 

men. They demanded the surrender of all the weapons 
and machines of war. Then, after receiving everything, 
they ordered the Carthaginians to abandon their city and 
settle ten miles inland. Grief and indignation inflamed 
the tumultuous people. Day and night they spent in mak- 
ing arms. Hasdrubal collected in his camp at Nepheris as 
many as 70,000 men. The Roman operations being unsuc- 
cessful, the consulate was given to Scipio ^milianus, the 
second Africanus, though he had asked only the aedileship. 
He restored discipline to the army and increased the courage 
of the soldiers. 

Carthage was built upon an isthmus. Cutting off this 
isthmus by a trench and wall he prevented sorties. To 
starve out the 700,000 inhabitants he closed the port by 
an immense dike. The Carthaginians cut a new passage 
through the rock toward the open sea. A fleet, built from 
the wreck of their houses, came near surprising the Eoman 
galleys but was repulsed by Scipio. When the ravages of 
famine had weakened the defence, he forced a part of the 
walls and took the city. The citadel, Byrsa, still held out. 
Situated at the centre, it could be reached only through 
long, narrow streets, where the Carthaginians intrenched 
in their houses offered desperate resistance. It took six 
days and six nights for the army to reach the foot of the 
citadel. The garrison of 50,000 men surrendered on condi- 
tion of saving their lives. At their head was Hasdrubal. 
His wife, after taunting her husband from the top of the 
wall for his cowardice, cut the throats of her two children 
and threw herself into the flames. Scipio abandoned the 
smoking ruins to pillage. Commissioners sent by the 
senate reduced the Carthaginian territory to a Eoman 
province called Africa (146). 



B.C. 229-183.] FOREIGN CONQUESTS OF ROME 103 



IV 

FOREIGN CONQUESTS OP ROME 
(339 139) 

Partial Conquest of Illyricum (229) and of Istria (221). — 
Between the first and second Punic wars, Rome had ob- 
tained a foothold upon the Greek continent. The Adriatic 
was then infested by Illyrian pirates, and Teuta, the widow 
of their last king, had butchered two insolent Roman envoys. 
The senate despatched 200 ships and 20,000 legionaries 
under the two consuls, who forced Teuta to pay tribute and 
to cede a large part of Illyricum. On occupying Istria the 
Romans became masters of one of the gates of Italy and 
also planted themselves at the north of Macedon which 
they threatened from Illyriciim. 

The Conquerors of Asia Minor, Macedon and Greece. — 
The wars against Antiochus, Philip, Perseus and the Achae- 
ans have been already mentioned. Here we will merely 
make brief reference to the generals in command. 

Scipio Asiaticus, the conqueror of Antiochus at Magnesia, 
was the brother of Scipio Africanus, who accompanied him 
as his lieutenant. On their return to Rome, the tribunes 
accused the two brothers of accepting bribes to grant peace 
to the king of Syria. Scipio Africanus indignantly refused 
to answer, and quitted Rome. Scipio Asiaticus, degraded 
by Cato from the equestrian order, was condemned to pay 
the sum he was accused of receiving. His poverty proved 
his innocence. 

Titus Quintus Flaminius was the conqueror of Philip at 
Cynocephalae and the founder of the Roman policy in 
Greece. He remained there a long time after his command 
expired, so as to organize a Roman party in all the cities 
and to expel the enemies of the senate. Thus he thwarted 
the patriotic plans of Philopcemen and brought about the 
rebellion of Messene which cost that great citizen his 
life. He also demanded from Prusias, king of Bithynia, 



104 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 183-135. 

the head of Hannibal, who had taken refuge in his states. 
The hero poisoned himself rather than fall into the hands 
of Rome. 

Paulus ^milius, who overthrew Perseus at Pydna, had 
won renown in the Lusitanian and Ligurian wars. His tri- 
umph, adorned with the spoils of Macedon, was the richest 
thus far seen. But of his two sons, who were to ride with 
him in his chariot, one had just died and the other expired 
three days later. Paulus ^milius in his manly grief re- 
joiced that he was the one chosen to expiate the public 
prosperity. " My triumph," said he, " placed between the 
two funerals of my children, will satisfy the cruel sport of 
Pate. At the age of sixty years I find my hearth solitary, 
but the prosperity of the state consoles me." 

Mummius, the destroyer of Corinth and of the Achaean 
league, was famous for his roughness. From the pillage 
of that opulent city he kept nothing for himself, but he 
made the persons who were to transport to Rome the mas- 
terpieces of Grecian art promise to replace whatever was 
lost or injured on the way. 

Conquest of Spain (197-133). Viriathus. Numantia. — 
In Spain the war was longer and more difficult. The Span- 
iards, through hatred of Carthage, had supported the Ro- 
mans during the second Punic War, but Rome did not grant 
them liberty. They revolted and Rome had to begin a 
reconquest of the whole country. Sixty-four years were 
required for the task. They slew 9000 men in the army of 
the Roman Galba. He pretended to treat, offered them 
fertile lands and then massacred 30,000 of them. Such 
perfidy bore its natural fruit. A herdsman, Viriathus, 
escaped from the massacre and carried on a guerilla war in 
which the Romans lost their best soldiers. During five 
years he defeated all the generals sent against him. One 
day he surrounded the Consul Fabius in a narrow pass and 
forced him to sign a treaty, that declared '^ There shall be 
peace between the Roman people and Viriathus." Cepio, 
the brother of Fabius, avenged him by fraud. He hired 
two officers of Viriathus to assassinate their chief. There- 
upon his followers surrendered and were removed by Cepio 
to the shores of the Mediterranean where they built Va- 
lencia. 

The Spanish war in the north toward Numantia was 
tedious and obstinate. Consul after consul was baffled or 



B.C. 133-30.] FOREIGN CONQUESTS OF ROME 105 

defeated until the general arrived who had conquered Car- 
thage. Gradually Scipio forced the Numantines back into 
their city, and surrounded it by four lines of intrench- 
ments. Hard pressed by horrible famine, the inhabitants 
demanded battle but Scipio refused. Then they slew 
each other. Only fifty Numantines followed his triumphal 
chariot in Rome. Even then the northern mountaineers 
were not subdued. Spain was completely pacified only 
under Augustus. In 124 Metellus took possession of the 
Balearic Islands after nearly exterminating their inhab- 
itants, and in 133 Attains ceded his kingdom of Pergamus 
to the Romans. 

Thus thirty years before Christ, the city which we have 
seen rise upon the Palatine Hill ruled from the Spanish 
coast on the Western Ocean to the centre of Asia Minor. 
She possessed the three peninsulas of southern Europe, 
Spain, Italy and Greece. Between Italy and Greece, 
through the subjection of the Illyrians, she had secured 
herself a road around the Adriatic, and Marseilles lent her 
its vessels and its pilots from the Var to the Ebro. Thus 
her conquest of the ancient world was far advanced. Her 
success was due to three forces which in politics generate 
other forces also. These were an astute senate, where the 
traditions of government were long preserved, a sagacious 
people, amenable to the laws which they had made for 
themselves, and that organized discipline in the legions 
which formed the most perfect military engine the world 
had yet known. 



106 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 150. 



V 

FIRST CIVIL WARS. THE GRACCHI. MARIUS. SULLA 
(133-79) 

Results of Roman Conquests on Roman Manners and Con- 
stitution. — Yet the conquest of so many wealthy provinces 
had upon the manners and likewise upon the constitution 
of the Romans disastrous effects, which were already felt, 
and which on development were to destroy both the re- 
public and liberty. Ancient simplicity was gradually aban- 
doned. The descendants of Fabricius, Curius Dentatus and 
Eegulus displayed a ruinous luxury. To replace the sums 
squandered in debauch or in empty display, they robbed 
their allies and the public treasury. The censors, guardians 
of the public manners, had already been forced to expel 
certain high-born personages from the senate. If the great 
became greedy, the people became venal. The middle class 
had disappeared, decimated by continuous wars, ruined by 
the decay of agriculture and by the competition of the 
slaves and free laborers. 

In place of that robust, proud, energetic population which 
had founded liberty and conquered Italy, there began to be 
seen in Rome only an idle, hungry crowd of beggars, con- 
tinually recruited by the emancipation of slaves, inheriting 
neither the ideas nor the blood of the ancient plebeia,ns. 
" There are not two thousand property-holders," said one of 
the tribunes. Such then was the situation. Two or three 
hundred families possessed millions, and below, very far 
below, were 300,000 beggars. Nothing between these two 
extremes of an arrogant aristocracy and a feeble and servile 
mob. The Gracchi undertook two things : to restore respect 
for the laws among those nobles who no longer respected 
anything ; and to reawaken the sentiments of citizenship 
among men who were still called the sovereign people, but 
whom Scipio ^milianus knowing their origin dubbed coun- 
rerfeit sons of Italy, 



B.C. 133-119.] FIRST CIVIL WARS 107 

The Gracchi (133-121). — Tiberius Gracchus, elected trib- 
une in 133, began with the people. To regain their former 
virtues, they must resume their former habits. He wished to 
convert the poor into landowners, and to regenerate them 
by means of work. The republic owned immense territory, 
which had been encroached upon by the nobles. His project 
was to reclaim these appropriated lands and distribute them 
among the poor in small, inalienable lots. The reafiirmed 
Licinian law forbade any person to possess more than 500 
jugera of public lands. However, he promised an in- 
demnity for any outlay which occupants had made upon 
the property restored by them. The nobles resisted stub- 
bornly. Tiberius, to break the veto of one of his colleagues, 
Octavius, caused him to be deposed. By thus trampling under 
foot the inviolable tribuneship, he provided a dangerous ex- 
ample, of which advantage was taken against himself. The 
nobles armed their slaves, attacked his partisans and slew 
him on the steps of the Capitol (133). 

In 123 Caius Gracchus was elected tribune, and openly 
resumed his brother's plans. He caused the agrarian law 
to be confirmed, established distributions of corn to the 
people, founded colonies for the poor citizens and dealt a 
fatal blow to the authority of the senate by taking from it 
the administration of justice and giving it to the knights. 
During two years he was all-powerful in the city. But the 
senate to ruin his credit caused, for every measure he pro- 
posed, some more popular measure to be brought forward 
by one of their creatures, and Caius was unable to obtain 
reelection for a third term. This check was a signal for 
which the Consul Opimius had been waiting. Caius suf- 
fered the fate of his brother, and 3000 of his partisans 
perished with him (121). The tribunes were dumb with 
terror during the next twelve years, and only recovered 
their voice at the scandals of the Numidian war, which 
brought into prominence Marius, the avenger of the Gracchi. 

Marius. Conquest of Numidia (118-104). — He was a 
rough, illiterate citizen of Arpinum, an intrepid soldier and 
good general. Scipio had noticed him at the siege of Nu- 
mantia. The support of Metellus, who had always protected 
his family, gave him the tribuneship in 119. At once he 
introduced a decree against intrigue. All the nobility 
denounced this audacity on the part of an unknown young 
man; but in the senate Marius threatened the consul with 



108 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 119-107. 

prison and summoned MSfViator to arrest Metellus. The 
populace applauded. A fejv-^ays later, the tribune forbade 
a gratuitous distribution -c^grain. This assumption of 
the right to read a lesson to&|>th parties turned every one 
against him. His zeal din^ished with difficulty of pro- 
motion. He served obscuyely as a praetor in Rome and 
a propraetor in Spain. Cki his return, the peasant of 
Arpinum sealed his peace t0k,h. the nobles by a great mar- 
riage. He wedded the patripian Julia, great-aunt of Caesar ; 
and Metellus, forgetting his conduct as tribune in consider- 
ation of his military talents, took him to Numidia. 

Micipsa, son of Massinissa and king of Numidia, had at 
his death (118) divided his states between his two sons and 
his nephew Jugurtha. The latter rid himself of one rival 
by assassination. Unable to surprise the other, he attacked 
him with open force in spite of Roman protection, and put 
him to death with torture, when famine had compelled his 
victim to open the gates of Cirtha, his last refuge (112). 
The senate had in vain sent two embassies to save him. 
Such audacity called for chastisement, but the first general 
sent against Jugurtha accepted bribes (111). A tribune 
summoned the king to Rome. Jugurtha had the hardihood 
to appear, but when one tribune ordered him to answer, 
another, whom he had bought, prohibited his replying. 

A competitor for the Numidian throne was in the city. 
He had him killed (110). The senate ordered him to 
leave Rome at once. " City for sale ! " he cried, as he 
passed through the gates ; " thou only lackest a purchaser ! " 
A consul followed him to Africa. The legions, cut off by 
the Numidians, repeated the disgrace endured before Nu- 
mantia and passed under the yoke. 

This war, which they had played with at first, soon 
became alarming, for the Cimbrians were threatening Italy 
with one more terrible. The honest but severe Metellus 
was sent to Numidia. He restored discipline and pursued 
his tireless enemy without truce or relaxation. He defeated 
him near Muthul (109), and took from him Vacca, his 
capital. Sicca, Cirtha and all the coast cities. When about 
to destroy the usurper, his lieutenant was appointed consul 
(107), and robbed him of the honor of finishing this war. 
The new general came near killing Jugurtha in battle with 
his own hand and made him fall back upon Mauritania. 
Jugurtha fled as a suppliant to his father-in-law Bocchus, 



B.C. 106-101.] FIRST CIVIL WARS 109 

who delivered him to the Eomans. The captive monarch 
in chains (106) traversed his ,"whole kingdom, followed 
Marius to Rome, and after tfie triumph was thrown into 
the Tullianum, a prison excayaied in the Capitoline mount. 
" By the gods," he exclaimed -j^jth a laugh, " how cold your 
baths are." He died there six days after from hunger (104). 
Part of Numidia was added to "the province of Africa. 

Invasion of the Cimbri and^'Jhe Teutones (113-102). — 
This success arrived at a fortunate time to reassure Rome, 
then threatened by a great peril. Three hundred thou- 
sand Cimbri and Teutones, retreating before an overflow 
of the Baltic, had crossed the Danube, defeated a consul 
(113), and for three years had been devastating Noricum, 
Pannonia and Illyricum. When there was nothing left 
to take, the horde fought its way into Gaul and crushed 
five Roman armies (110-105). Italy was uncovered but, 
instead of crossing the Alps, the barbarians turned toward 
Spain, and Rome had time to recall Marius from Africa. 
In order to harden his soldiers, he subjected them to the 
severest labors. When a part of the horde reappeared, 
he refused for a long time to fight, that his army might 
become accustomed to seeing the barbarians close at hand. 
The action took place near Aix, and the Romans made a 
horrible carnage among the Teutones (102). 

Meanwhile the Cimbri, who had flanked the Alps, entered 
the peninsula through the valley of the Adige. Marius 
returned in all haste to the banks of the Po to the succor 
of his colleague Caculus. The barbarians were awaiting 
the arrival of the Teutones before fighting. They even 
asked Marius for lands for themselves and their brethren. 
"Do not trouble yourselves about your brethren," the con- 
sul replied; "they have the land which we have given 
them, and which they will keep forever." The Cimbri 
allowed him to choose the day and place of battle. At 
Vercellae, as at Aix, there was an immense massacre. Nev- 
ertheless more than 60,000 were made prisoners, but twice 
as many were massacred. The barbarian women, rather 
than be taken captive, slew their children and then killed 
themselves (101). 

Renewal of Civil Troubles. Saturninus (106-98). — Marius 
had been continued four successive years in the consulship 
in reward of his services. His ambition was not satisfied. 
On reentering Rome, he intrigued for the fasces of the 



110 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 100-91. 

magistracy. The nobles thought that the peasant of 
Arpinum had been honored enough. They put up Metellus 
Numidicus, his personal enemy, against him and reduced 
him to buying votes. Marius could not pardon this insult, 
and had them attacked by Saturninus, a low demagogue. 
Saturninus aspired to the tribunate. A partisan of the 
nobles was elected but the demagogue slew him and seized 
his place. For the benefit of Marius' veterans he immedi- 
ately proposed an agrarian law, opposition to which caused 
the exile of Metellus. 

Soon afterwards Metellus was recalled. That he might 
not witness his triumphant return, Marius betook himself 
to Asia in the secret hope of bringing about a rupture be- 
tween Mithridates and the republic (98). He needed a 
war to restore his credit in the eyes of his fellow-citizens. 
" They look upon me," he said, " as a sword which rusts 
in peace." 

Sulla. The Italian Revolt (91-88). — The wars with Ju- 
gurtha and the Cimbri had made the fortune of the plebeian 
Marius. Three other wars made the fortune of the patrician 
Sulla, who has left a sanguinary name. Descendant of the 
illustrious Cornelian house, he was Marius' first quaestor 
in the Numidian war. Ambitious, brave, eloquent, zealous 
and energetic, Sulla soon became dear to the soldiers and 
their officers. Marius himself loved this young noble who 
did not rely upon his ancestors, and confided to him the 
dangerous mission of treating with Bocchus. It was into 
Sulla's hands that Jugurtha was betrayed. Marius associ- 
ated him with his triumph, and employed him again in the 
war with the Cimbri. A misunderstanding having arisen, 
Sulla joined the army of Catulus. Later on, he commanded 
in Asia. The Social War brought his talents into promi- 
nence. 

It was a period of general ferment. In the city, the 
people were rising against the nobles ; in Sicily, the slaves 
were rebelling against their masters. Her allies were turn- 
ing against Eome, whom they brought to the brink of the 
abyss. The Italians, after long sharing all the dangers of 
the Romans, wished to enjoy equal privileges and claimed 
the right of citizenship. Scipio ^Emilianus, Tiberius Grac- 
chus, Saturninus and finally the tribune Drusus encouraged 
them to hope for this title of citizen, which would have 
relieved them from the exactions and violence of the Roman 



B.C. 91-88.] FIRST CIVIL WARS 111 

magistrates. But the knights assassinated Drusus, and the 
allies, wearied by their long patience, resolved to obtain 
justice by force of arms. 

Eight peoples of central and southern Italy exchanged 
hostages and arranged a general rising. They were to- 
gether to form but one republic, organized after the pat- 
tern of Rome, with a senate of 500 members, two consuls 
and twelve praetors. Their capital was to be the stronghold 
Corfinium, which they called by the significant name of 
Italica. The Latins, the Etruscans, the Umbrians and 
the Gauls remained faithful to their allegiance. The sig- 
nal was given from Asculum, where the consul Servilius 
was massacred together with all the Romans who were in 
the town ; even the women were not spared (90). At first 
the allies had the advantage. Campania was invaded, one 
consul routed, another killed. Marius, who held a command, 
accomplished nothing worthy of his reputation. He con- 
tented himself with acting on the defensive, and soon he 
even withdrew, alleging his infirmities. His former relations 
with the Italians did not permit him to play a more active 
part. Sulla, who was hampered by nothing, was on the 
contrary energetic and deserved all the honor of this brief 
and terrible war. The prudence of the senate aided the 
skill of the generals. The Julian and Plautia-Papirian 
laws, which accorded the right of citizenship to the allies 
who had remained loyal, led to desertions, and at the end of 
the second year only the Samnites and Lucanians remained 
under arms. From the new citizens eight tribes were formed. 

In this way Sulla had gained the consulship and the com- 
mand of the war against Mithridates which Marius solicited 
in vain. This was the beginning of their rivalry and of the 
civil wars which led to military rule. 

Proscriptions in Rome. Sulpicius and Cinna (88-84). — In 
order to annul the last-mentioned decree Marius made an 
agreement with the tribune Sulpicius, and a riot forced the 
new consul to leave Rome (88) ; but he came back at the 
head of his troops. Marius in turn fled before a sentence 
which put a price on his life. Dragged from the marshes 
of Minturnae, where he had taken refuge, and covered with 
mire, he was thrown into the city prison. A Cimbrian, sent 
to kill him, was terrified by his glance and words and dared 
not strike. The inhabitants, who cherished no anger against 
the friend of the Italians, employed as a pretext the reli- 



112 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 88-82. 

gious dread which he had inspired and furnished him the 
means to cross over into Africa. 

However in Rome Sulla had diminished by several laws the 
power of the tribunes of the people. Hardly had he departed 
for Asia, when the consul Cinna demanded that their dan- 
gerous power be restored. On being driven out of Rome 
he began a war against the senate. Marius hastened to 
return and join him. With an army of fugitive slaves and 
Italians they routed the troops of the senate, forced the gates 
of the city and put to death the friends of Sulla. For five 
days and five nights they slew without cessation, even on the 
altars of the gods. From Rome the proscription spread over 
Italy. They murdered in the cities and on the highways. 
It was forbidden under pain of death to bury the dead, who 
lay where they had fallen until devoured by dogs and birds 
of prey. 

On January 1, 86, Marius and Cinna seized the consul- 
ship without election ; but debauch hastened the end of the 
former. Twelve days afterward he expired. He had set a 
price on Sulla's head. Valerius Flaccus undertook to get it, 
but was himself killed by one of his lieutenants. Cinna, 
thus left alone, continued himself iu the consulship during 
the two following years, and fell under the blows of his 
soldiers. 

Victory of SuUa. His Proscriptions and Dictatorship (84- 
79). — At that moment Sulla was returning from Asia to 
avenge his friends and himself. His 40,000 veterans 
were so devoted to his person that they offered him 
their savings to fill his military chest. Unopposed he made 
his way into Campania (83), defeated one army, corrupted 
another and vanquished the son of Marius in the great 
battle of Sacriportus (82). This success opened the road to 
Rome. He arrived there too late to prevent fresh murders. 
The most illustrious senators had been massacred in the 
curia itself. Sulla rapidly passed through Rome on his way 
to fight the other consul, Carbo, in Etruria. One desperate 
battle which lasted all day had no result; but desertions 
decided Carbo to flee to Africa. Sertorius, another leader 
of the popular party, had already set out for Spain ; only 
the young Marius, who was shut up in Praeneste, remained 
in Italy. The Italians tried by a bold stroke to save him. 
A Samnite chief, Pontus Telesinus, who had not laid down 
Ms arms since the Social War, tried to surprise Rome and 



B.C. 82-81.] FIRST CIVIL WARS 113 

destroy it. Sulla had time to arrive. The battle near the 
Colline Gate lasted one whole day and night. The left wing 
commanded by Sulla was routed; but Crassus with the right 
wing dispersed the enemy. The field of battle was strewn 
with 50,000 corpses, half of which were Roman. 

The next day Sulla harangued the senate in the temple 
of Bellona. Suddenly cries of despair were heard and 
the senators became uneasy. " It is nothing," said he, 
"except the punishment of a few seditious persons," and 
he continued his discourse. Meanwhile 8000 Samnite 
and Lucanian prisoners were being slain. When he re- 
turned from Praeneste, which had surrendered and all of 
whose population had been massacred, the butchery began 
in Rome. Every day a list of the outlawed was drawn up. 
From the first of December, 82, to the first of June, 81, 
during six long months, men could murder with impunity. 
There were assassinations afterward also, for Sulla's inti- 
mates sold the right to place a name on the fatal list. " One 
man's splendid villa, or the marble baths of another, or the 
magnificent gardens of a third caused him to perish." The 
property of the proscribed was confiscated, and sold at 
auction. The estate of Roscius was valued at six million 
sesterces, and Chrysogonus got it for two thousand. What 
was the number of the victims ? Appian mentions ninety 
senators, fifteen former consuls and 2600 knights. Valerius 
Maximus speaks of 4700 proscribed. " But who could 
reckon," says another, *' all those who were sacrificed to pri- 
vate grudge ? " The proscription did not stop with the vic- 
tims. The sons and grandsons of the proscribed were 
declared forever ineligible to a public office. In Italy 
entire peoples were outlawed. The richest cities, Spoletum, 
Interamna, Praeneste, Terni, Florence, were, so to speak, sold 
at auction. In Samnium, Beneventum alone remained 
standing. 

After having slain men by the sword, Sulla tried to destroy 
the popular party by laws. To issue these laws he had 
himself proclaimed dictator, and took all the measures which 
he thought calculated to assure the power in Rome to the 
aristocracy. To the senate he restored the right of decision 
and of preliminary discussion, or in other words the legis- 
lative veto. He deprived the tribunes of the right to pre- 
sent a rogation to the people. Their veto was restricted 
to civil affairs, and the tribune could hold no other office. 



114 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 76-72. 

Thus the people and the nobles moved backward four cen- 
turies ; the former to the obscurity of the time when they 
withdrew to Mons Sacer, the latter to the brilliancy and 
power of the early days of the republic. 

When Sulla had accomplished his purposes, he abdicated. 
This abdication (76) seemed a defiance of his enemies and 
an audacious confidence in his own fortunes. He lived a 
year longer in the retirement of his villa at Cumae. The 
epitaph he had written for himself was veracious : " No one 
has ever done more good to his friends, or more evil to his 
enemies." 

The Popular Party ruined by the Defeat of Sertorius (72). 
— The popular party was crushed at Rome. Sertorius tried 
to revive it in S^oain. Driven out at first by one of Sulla's 
lieutenants before he had had time to organize anything, 
and then recalled by the Lusitanians, he gained over the 
Spaniards who thought that they were fighting for their 
independence. Successfully he resisted for ten years the 
best generals of the senate (82-72). He wore out Metellus, 
his first adversary, by a war of skirmishes and surprises, 
and defeated Pompey in many encounters. Unfortunately 
the clever leader was badly seconded. Whenever he was 
absent his lieutenants were worsted. He was assassinated 
in his tent by Perpenna, one of his officers, who, unable to 
carry on the war which his victim had conducted, fell into 
the hands of Pompey. The conqueror boasted that he had 
captured 800 cities and ended the Civil Wars. The latter 
had in fact been averted but only for twenty years. 



B.C. 90-86.] FROM SULLA TO C^SAR 115 



VI 

FROM SULLA TO C^SAR. POMPEY AND CICERO 
(79-60) 

War against Mithridates tinder Sulla (90-84). — The shock 
which the empire had undergone from the popular turmoils 
in the times of the Gracchi and Marius, from the revolt 
of the slaves in Sicily, and the Social War in Italy, had 
affected the provinces. The provincials, horribly oppressed 
by the governors, wished to escape from that Roman domi- 
nation in which the Italians merely had demanded a share. 
The Western provincials had joined Sertorius. Those in 
the East followed Mithridates. 

Mithridates, king of Pontus, had subdued many Scythian 
nations beyond the Caucasus, also the kingdom of the Cim- 
merian Bosphorus, and in Asia Minor, Cappadocia, Phrygia 
and Bithynia. The senate, alarmed at this great power 
which was forming in the neighborhood of its provinces, 
ordered the praetor of Asia to restore the Bithynian and 
Cappadocian kings to their thrones (90). Mithridates 
silently made immense preparations. When he learned 
that Italy was on fire, through the insurrection of the Sam- 
nite peoples, he deluged Asia with his armies. Such hatred 
had the greed of the Roman publicans everywhere excited, 
that 80,000 Italians were assassinated in Asiatic cities 
at the order of Mithridates. Having subdued Asia, the 
king of Pontus invaded Greece and captured Athens (88). 
At any cost this conqueror who dared approach Italy 
must be stopped. Fortunately the Social War was nearing 
its end. In the spring of 87 Sulla arrived in Greece with 
five legions, and began the siege of Athens which lasted 
ten months. The city was bathed in blood. The Pontic 
army encountered Sulla near Chaeronea. His soldiers were 
appalled at the hosts of the enemy. Like Marius he 
exhausted them with work until they themselves demanded 
battle. Of the 120,000 Asiatics only 10,000 escaped. 

Sulla was still at Thebes, celebrating his victory, when he 



116 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 85-71. 

learned that the consul Valerius Flaccus was crossing the 
Adriatic with an army to rob him of the honor of termi- 
nating this war, and to execute the decree of proscription 
issued against him at Rome. At the same time Dorylaos, 
a general of Mithridates, arrived from Asia with 80,000 
men. Thus placed between two perils Sulla chose the 
more glorious. He marched against Dorylaos whom he 
met in Boeotia near Orchomenus. This time the enga:;e- 
ment was fierce ; Sulla was wounded but the Asiatic hordes 
were again dispersed. Thebes and three other cities of 
Boeotia met the fate of Athens. 

While he was winning this second victory, Flaccus had 
preceded him into Asia. Mithridates, threatened by two 
armies, secretly sued for peace from Sulla, intimating that 
he could obtain very mild terms from Fimbria, who had 
killed Flaccus and was making war on his own account. 
Mithridates vainly hoped to profit by the rivalry of the two 
chiefs. Finally the king humbly asked for an interview. 
It took place at Dardanus in the Troad. Mithridates made 
full submission, restored his conquests, delivered up the 
captives and deserters with 2000 talents and seventy 
galleys. Fimbria was then in Lydia. Sulla marched 
upon him, won over his army and reduced him to suicide 
(84). With the soldiers trained in this war he returned 
to Italy to overthrow the party of Marius. 

War against Mithridates under Lucullns and Pompey 
(74-63). — When six years later the king of Pontus heard 
of the dictator's death (78), he secretly incited the king of 
Armenia, Tigranes, to invade Cappadocia, and he himself 
prepared to enter the arena. All the barbaric tribes from 
the Caucasus to the Balkans furnished auxiliaries. Eomau 
exiles drilled his troops and Sertorius sent him of&cers 
from Spain (74). 

Lucullus, proconsul of Cilicia, having received orders to 
oppose him, was marching on Pontus, when he learned that 
his colleague Cotta had been twice defeated and blocked in 
Macedon (74). Hastening to his help, he drove Mithridates 
into Cyzicus, where that prince would have been captured 
had not a subordinate ofl&cer been negligent. Then he pen- 
etrated into Pontus and took the stronghold of Amisus (72). 
In the following year he surrounded the enemy again. The 
king escaped by scattering his treasures along the road so 
as to delay pursuit. He found refuge with Tigranes, who 



B.C. 71-63.] FROM SULLA TO CJSSAR 117 

was then the most powerful monarch of the East, being 
master of Armenia and Syria, conqueror of the Parthians, 
and bearing the title of King of kings. Mithridates in his 
former prosperity had refused to recognize his supremacy. 
Therefore he was coldly received, but when Lucullus de- 
manded that he should be surrendered, Tigranes in anger 
dismissed the envoy of the Roman general. The latter 
immediately began hostilities against his new enemy. He 
crossed the Tigris and with 11,000 foot and a few horse 
marched to encounter 250,000 Armenians. He dispersed 
the immense army of Tigranes and captured his capital, 
Tigranocerta. 

Lucullus wintered in Gordyene, where he invited the king 
of the Parthians to join him. As that prince hesitated, he 
resolved to attack him, for he held in profound contempt 
those mobs which their princes mistook for armies. But 
his officers and soldiers, content with the immense booty 
they had already captured, refused, like those of Alexander, 
to follow him further. In 67 Pompey came to replace 
him. Mithridates had collected another army, which was 
destroyed at the first encounter, and Tigranes, threatened 
by a treacherous and rebellious son who fled to the Romans, 
was forced to humble himself. Reassured in this direction, 
Pompey pursued Mithridates to the Caucasus and con- 
quered the Albanians and the Iberians. As the king still 
fled before him, he abandoned this fruitless pursuit. In 
the spring of 64, after having organized the Roman admin- 
istration in Pontus, he descended into Syria, reduced that 
country and Phoenicia to provinces and captured Jerusalem, 
where he reestablished Hyrcanus who promised an annual 
tribute. 

During these operations, Mithridates, who was reputed 
dead, reappeared with an army on the Bosphorus and forced 
his son Machares to kill himself. Then, despite his sixty 
years, this indomitable enemy wished to penetrate Thrace, 
attach the barbarians to his cause and descend upon Italy 
at the head of their innumerable hordes. His soldiers, 
alarmed at the magnitude of his plans, revolted at the insti- 
gation of his son Pharnaces. In order to escape being de- 
livered alive to the Romans, he had himself killed by a 
Gaul (63). Pompey had only to finish in Asia "the splen- 
did work of the Roman empire," distributing principalities 
and kingdoms to the friends of the senate. 



118 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 71-67. 

Revival of the Popular Party at Rome. The Gladiators 

(71). — After the death of Sulla and during the recent 
war against Mithridates, events of considerable importance 
had been taking place in Italy. The consul Lepidus had 
aroused a tempest by merely uttering the words : " Re- 
establishment of the authority of the tribuneship." The 
whole party, which Sulla thought he had drowned in blood, 
had at once raised its head. The governor of Cisalpine 
Gaul joined Lepidus. The senate and the patricians trem- 
bled when Pompey, still at the head of the army which he 
had himself raised against the followers of Marius, offered 
to fight the new chiefs of the people. He vanquished one 
at the Milvian Bridge close to the gates of Rome and the 
other in Cisalpine Gaul. We have seen his success in paci- 
fying Spain. 

Seventy-eight gladiators escaped from Capua, where they 
were being trained in great numbers, and seized upon a 
natural stronghold under the guidance of a Thracian slave 
Spartacus. There they repulsed troops sent against them. 
This success attracted to their ranks many herdsmen of the 
neighborhood. A second general was beaten. Spartacus 
wished to lead his army toward the Alps, cross those moun- 
tains and restore each slave to his native country. His 
men, greedy for booty and vengeance, refused to follow and 
dispersed all over Italy for pillage. Then two consuls 
were defeated. Crassus finally succeeded in shutting up the 
gladiators in the extreme end of Brutium, whither their 
chief had conducted them with the intention of leading them 
across into Sicily. Before the investment was complete 
Spartacus took advantage of a snowy night to escape. Dis- 
sension arose among his men and several detached corps 
were destroyed. Spartacus alone seemed invincible. The 
confidence which his successes inspired among the gladiators 
ended in his ruin. They forced him to fight a decisive 
battle, in which he succumbed after having displayed heroic 
courage (71). Shortly afterward Pompey arrived from 
Spain. He met several bands of these unfortunate men and 
cut them in pieces. From this paltry victory he attributed 
to himself the honor of having terminated this war. 

Pompey turns toward the People. War with the Pirates 
(67). — The nobles began to think that the vainglorious gen- 
eral had held commands enough and received him coldly. 
The people on the contrary to win him to their side greeted 



B.C. 67-63.] FROM SULLA TO C^SAR 119 

him with applause, so Pompey inclined toward the popular 
party. He proposed a law which restored to the tribunate 
its ancient prerogatives. This was the overthrow of Sulla's 
constitution. The grateful populace committed to him the 
charge of an easy but brilliant expedition against the pirates 
who infested the seas (67), and the command of the war 
against Mithridates whom Lucullus had already reduced. 
While accomplishing these enterprises, a memorable con- 
spiracy was on the point of overturning the republic itself, 

Cicero. Conspiracy of Catiline (63). — Cicero, like Marius, 
came from Arpinum. His fluent and flowery speech early 
revealed in him the ready orator. After a few successes 
at the bar he had the wisdom to continue his studies in 
Greece. He began his public career as a qusestor, and in 
the name of the Sicilians arraigned Verres, their former 
governor, the most shameless and greedy plunderer that 
Rome had ever seen. This trial, which had immense celeb- 
rity, raised to the highest pitch the renown of the prose- 
cutor, whose speeches against Verres we still admire at the 
present day. Cicero being a new man needed support. 
He sought that of Pompey and helped to confer extraordi- 
nary powers upon him. Eventually recognizing the goal 
whither that ambitious general was tending, he labored to 
form a party of honest men who assumed the mission of 
defending the republic. His consulship appears to have 
been the realization of this plan. 

The government was then menaced by a vast conspiracy. 
Catiline during the proscriptions had signalized himself 
among the most bloodthirsty. He had killed his brother- 
in-law, and murdered his wife and son to secure another 
woman in marriage. While propraetor in Africa he had 
committed terrible extortions. On his return he solicited 
the consulship, but a deputation from his province brought 
accusations against him, and the senate struck his name 
from the list of candidates. He had long been in league 
with the criminal classes at Rome. His plot to kill the 
consuls twice failed, and the enterprise was postponed to 
the year 63. Cicero was then consul, and realized how im- 
minent was the danger. Catiline had collected forces in 
several places. The veterans of Umbria, Etruria and Sam- 
nium were arming in his cause. The fleet at Ostia was 
apparently won over : Sittius in Africa promised to stir up 
that province and perhaps Spain also to rebellion. In Rome 



120 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 63. 

itself, Catiline believed he could count upon the consul An- 
tonius. One of the conspirators was a tribune elect, an- 
other a praetor. In a full senate Catiline had dared to say, 
" The Roman people is a robust body without a head : I will 
be that head." It soon became known that troops were 
mustering in Picenum and Apulia, and that Manlius, one 
of Sulla's former officers, was threatening Faesulae with an 
army. The consuls were invested by the senate with dis- 
cretionary power, but Catiline remained in Rome. Cicero 
drove him out by a vehement oration, in which he disclosed 
the conspirator's plans. Having thus expelled the leader, 
who joined Manlius and thereby proclaimed himself a public 
enemy, he seized his accomplices, caused their condemna- 
tion by the senate and had them executed at once. This 
energy disheartened the rest of the conspirators. Antonius 
himself marched against Catiline, who was slain near Pis- 
toia, after having fought valiantly. 

On quitting office, when Cicero wished to harangue the 
people, a factious tribune ordered that he should confine 
himself to the customary oath of having done nothing con- 
trary to the laws. "I swear," exclaimed Cicero, "I swear 
that I have saved the republic ! " To this eloquent out- 
burst Cato and the senators responded by saluting him with 
the title, " Father of his country," which the whole people 
confirmed by their applause. 






INDICATIONS 


I Region 


- Porta Capena 


II 




Coelimontiura 


III 




Isis ct Serapia 


IV 




Via Sacra 


V 




MonsEsquilinus 


VI 




Alta Seniita 


vn 




Via Lata 


VIII 




Forum Romanura 


IX 




CircuB Flaininius 


X 




Palatium 


XI 




Circus Maximus 


XII 




Piscina Publica 


XIII 




Avuutinus 


XIV 




Trans Tiberine 


a 




Tarpeian Rock 



m 

CToniT) of Augu'^tS 

Tomb of Hadrian /''/ ''' 

SSBSi ^a^^y ^ a Amph^^tatihuB^ 

^ Column of Antt 
\ Stadium ■''r .. 

i,Doniitian | WQi 

IX JssSJi^nV \ p. j Colum,S\ 

w^ / \^ '°^^S^/ /^ 

^ ^^--"''' ATM Pai<.rt«i,rC!^j <>s'>' ""^d 

>f/;.-^.rT^^|^_ xiy !:- ^ 

(ENTINl 




B.C. 65-59.] C^SAR 121 



VII 
(60-44) 

Caesar, leader of the Popular Party. His Consulship (60). 
— Caesar, of the illustrious Julian family which claimed de- 
scent from Venus through lulus, the son of Anchises, had 
braved Sulla when only seventeen years old. Nominated 
curule sedile in 65, he had won the people by magnificent 
games, and in spite of the senate had restored to the Capitol 
the trophies of his great-uncle Marius. The grateful people 
had nominated him sovereign pontiff. In 62 he already 
was in debt 850 talents. The wealthy Crassus, who owned 
a whole quarter in Rome, had to become his bondsman. 
Otherwise his debtors would not allow him to depart and 
take possession of his province of Farther Spain. 

When he returned in 60, he found Pompey and Crassus 
at variance with the senate; the first because it did not 
ratify his acts in Asia, the second because it left him no 
influence in the state. Caesar brought them together, and 
induced them to form a secret union which has been desig- 
nated as the triumvirate. All three swore to unite their 
resources and influence, and in every matter to act only in 
accordance with their common interest. Caesar reaped the 
first and the surest profits from the alliance. His two col- 
leagues agreed to support him for the consulship. In office 
he secured popularity by proposing and carrying an agrarian 
law in spite of the senate and of his colleague Bibulus. He 
won over the equestrian order by diminishing by a third 
the rents which the knights paid the state. He caused the 
acts of Pompey in Asia to be confirmed, and obtained for 
himself the government of Cisalpine Gaul and of lUyricum 
with three legions for a term of five years. In vain did 
Cato cry with prophetic voice : " You are arming tyranny 
and setting it in a fortress above your heads ! " The trem- 
bling senate added as an earnest of reconciliation a fourth 



122 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 59-52. 

legion and a third province, Transalpine Gaul, where war 
was imminent (59) . Before his departure Caesar took great 
care to have Clodius, one of his creatures, appointed tribune. 
Thus he could hold both the senate and Pompey in check 
during his absence. Clodius soon delivered him from two 
obnoxious persons, Cato and Cicero, accusing the great 
orator of illegally putting to death Catiline's accomplices. 
Clodius secured against him a sentence of exile to a dis- 
tance of 400 miles from Eome. Cato was ordered to reduce 
Cyprus to a province. 

The Grallic War. Victories over the Helvetii, Ariovistus, and 
the Belgse (58-57). — Since 125 the Eomans had held Nar- 
bonensis, a province in Gaul, and were on friendly terms 
with the iEdui, a tribe in central Gaul. Their neighbors, 
the Sequani, were attacked by Ariovistus, a German chief. 
He had crossed the Rhine with 120,000 Suevi, overthrown 
the Sequani and Mihxi, and harshly oppressed eastern Gaul. 
This was the beginning of the Germanic invasion. Another 
fact directed Caesar's attention to this quarter. The Hel- 
vetii, constantly attacked by the Suevi, wished to abandon 
their mountains and seek on the shores of the ocean a milder 
climate and an easier existence. Caesar resolved to oppose 
these changes as unfavorable to Roman supremacy. The 
Helvetii having crossed the Jura in spite of his prohibition, 
he exterminated many of them on the banks of the Saone, 
and forced the rest to return to their mountains. Then in 
a sanguinary encounter he drove Ariovistus back beyond 
the Rhine (58). Gaul was delivered. As the legions estab- 
lished their camps at the very frontiers of Belgium, the 
Belgic tribes grew alarmed at seeing the Romans so near 
them. They formed a vast league, which was broken by 
the treachery of the Remi, and the tribes, attacked sepa- 
rately, were forced to submit. 

Submission of Armoricum and Aquitaine. Expeditions to 
Britain and beyond the Rhine (56-53). — The third cam- 
paign subdued Armoricum and the Aquitani. In the fourth 
and fifth, two expeditions beyond the Rhine deprived the 
barbarians of all desire of crossing that river or of aiding 
the Gauls in their resistance. Two descents upon Britain 
cut off Gaul from that island, the centre of the druidic 
religion. The whole of Gaul was apparently resigned to 
the yoke. 

General Insurrection. Vercingetorix. — Nevertheless a 



B.C. 53-52.] C^SAB 123 

general insurrection was preparing from the Garonne to 
the Seine. A young chieftain of the Arverni, Vercin- 
getorix, directed the movement (52). The legions were 
dispersed but Caesar acted with great celerity and skill. 
With his lieutenant, Labienus', who had won a battle near 
Paris, Caesar attacked 200,000 Gauls, who were trying to 
cut him off from the Alps. He gained a decisive victory, 
crowded his enemy into Alesia, and surrounded it with 
formidable earthworks. Vercingetorix was forced to sur- 
render. 

Defeat of Crassus by the Parthians. — While Caesar was 
conquering Gaul by his activity and genius, one of the 
triumvirs, Crassus, undertook an expedition against the 
Parthians. After pillaging the temples of Syria and Jeru- 
salem, he crossed the Euphrates with seven legions, plunged 
into the immense plains of Mesopotamia and soon encoun- 
tered the innumerable cavalry of the Parthians. When these 
horsemen hurled themselves upon the legions, the Koman 
arms and courage proved of no avail against the tactics of 
the enemy. When they advanced, the Parthians fled; when 
they halted, the squadrons hovered around the stationary 
host and slew tliem with arrows from a distance. Dis- 
heartened, the legions retreated to Carrhae, leaving 4000 
wounded. The very next day the Roman army was over- 
taken by the Parthians, and the terrified soldiers forced 
Crassus to accept an interview with the surena, or Par- 
thian general-in-chief. The interview was an ambuscade. 
Crassus and his escort were killed. Only a few feeble 
remnants recrossed the Euphrates (53). 

Civil War between Caesar and Pompey (49-48). — Between 
the two surviving triumvirs peace could not long endure. 
While Crassus was fighting in Syria and Caesar in Gaul, 
Pompey had remained in Rome. Daily insulted by Clodius, 
he soon recalled Cicero, the personal enemy of that dema- 
gogue, and then stirred up the tribune Milo, who opposed 
Clodius with a band of gladiators and finally killed him. 
The senate won Pompey to its side by causing his election 
as sole consul with absolute power (52). This was mon- 
archy in disguise; but the senate desired a general and an 
army to oppose Caesar, whose glory daily became more 
menacing. Cato approved these concessions. Though 
Pompey was a usurper, his usurpation was acquired by 
legal means; but how was he to defend himself against his 



124 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 51-47. 

former associate in the triumvirate? Then began attacks 
upon Caesar, for the purpose of taking away his command. 
In vain did the tribune Curio declare that Pompey must 
abdicate to save liberty, if Caesar were dispossessed. On 
January 1, 49, a decree of the senate declared Csesar a pub- 
lic enemy if by a certain day he did not abandon his troops 
and his provinces. Two tribunes who opposed were threat- 
ened by the followers of Pompey and fled to Caesar's camp. 
He no longer hesitated, crossed the Rubicon, the boundary 
of his government, and in sixty days drove from Italy Pom- 
pey and the senators who wished to follow him (49). Then 
he attacked the Pompeian party in Spain and forced it to 
lay down its arms. On his way back he captured Marseilles 
and returned to Rome where the people had conferred upon 
him the title of dictator, 

Pompey had retired toward Dyrrachium in Epirus and 
thence called to him all the forces of the East. In January, 
48, Caesar crossed the Adriatic, and although his army was 
greatly inferior in numbers tried to surround his adversary. 
Being repulsed in an attack against positions which were 
too strong, and in need of food, he marched to Thessaly 
whither Pompey imprudently folloAved. The battle of 
Pharsalia, the defeat and flight of Pompey to Egypt, where 
he was treacherously murdered at the moment of his disem- 
barkation in a supposed friendly land, left Caesar without 
a rival. 

War of Alexandria. Caesar Dictator (48-44), — With his 
usual activity, he had followed on the heels of Pompey and 
had arrived in Egypt a few days after him. The ministers 
of the young Ptolemy expected a reward for their treachery. 
He showed only horror. Fascinated by the charms of Cleo- 
patra, the sister of the king, he wished her to reign jointly 
with her brother. Then the ministers stirred up the im- 
mense population of Alexandria, and the victor of Pharsalia 
beheld himself with 7000 legionaries besieged for seven 
months in the palace of the Lagidae. Reinforcements came 
to him from Asia. He assumed the offensive and defeated 
the royal army. The fleeing king was drowned in the 
Nile, and Cleopatra remained sole mistress of Egypt (48). 
Caesar returned to Rome by way of Asia, where he routed 
Pharnaces. Veni, vidi, vici, he wrote to the senate (47). 
Another war awaited him. The survivors of Pharsalia, 
who had taken refuge in Africa, now formed a formidable 



B.C. 46-44.] C^SAR 126 

army supported by Juba, king of the Kumidians. He con- 
quered it at Thapsus and captured Utica, where Cato had 
just committed suicide rather than survive liberty (46). 

The sons of Pompey roused Spain to revolt in the fol- 
lowing year. This last was a difificult struggle. At Munda 
Csesar was obliged to fight for his life, but his enemies were 
crushed. All the honors which flattery could invent were 
bestowed upon the conqueror. He was declared almost a 
god. All the prerogatives of authority were surrendered 
to him. However no man ever made a nobler use of his 
power. There were no proscriptions. All injuries were 
forgotten. Discipline was sternly maintained in the army. 
The people, while surfeited with festivals and games, were 
firmly ruled and Italian agriculture was encouraged as the 
Gracchi had wished that it should be. No new names were 
invented for this new authority. The senate, the comitia, 
the magistracies, existed as in the past. Only Caesar con- 
centrated in himself all public action by uniting in his own 
hands all the offices of the republic. As dictator for life 
and consul for five years, he had the executive power with 
the right to draw upon the treasury; as imperator, the 
military power; as tribune, the veto on the legislative 
power. Chief of the senate, he directed the debates of that 
assembly; prefect of customs, he decided them according 
to his pleasure; grand pontiff, he made religion speak in 
accordance with his interests and watched over his minis- 
ters. The finances, the army, religion, the executive power, 
a part of the judicial power, and indirectly nearly all the 
legislative power were thus at his discretion. 

Caesar had conceived grand projects. He wished to crush 
the Daci and Getee, avenge Crassus, penetrate even to the 
Indus, and, returning through conquered Scythia and Ger- 
many, in the Babylon of the West place on his brow the 
crown of Alexander. Then, master of the world, he would 
cut the Corinthian isthmus, drain the Pontine marshes, 
pierce Lake Fucinus and throw across the Apennines a 
great road from the Adriatic to the Tuscan sea. Then he 
would extend the rights of citizenship in order to cement 
the unity of the empire ; would collect in one code the laws, 
the decrees of the senate, the plebiscites and the edicts ; and 
would gather in a public library all the products of human 
thought. 

But for many months a conspiracy had been forming. 



126 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c.44. 

Cassius was its head. He carried with him Brutus, nephew 
and son-in-law of Cato, a man of many virtues, but egotistic 
and a blind partisan of former institutions. On the ides of 
March (March 15), 44, the conspirators assassinated Caesar 
in the senate house. 



B.C. 44-43.] THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE 127 



VIII 

THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE 

Octavius. — With Caesar dead the conspirators supposed 
liberty would return unaided; but Antony, then consul, 
stirred up the people against them at the dictator's funeral 
and drove them from the city. Caesar had left no son, only 
a nephew, Octavius, whom he had adopted. When this 
young man, eighteen years of age, came to Rome, Antony, 
expecting to inherit the power of his former chief, dis- 
dained the friendless aspirant ; but the name of Caesar ral- 
lied round Octavius all the veterans. As he agreed to 
discharge the legacy bequeathed by Caesar to the people 
and the soldiers, he created for himself by that declaration 
alone a numerous faction. The senate, where Cicero tried 
once more to rescue liberty from the furious hands which 
sought to stifle it, needed an army wherewith to oppose 
Antony. This army Octavius alone could give. Cicero 
flattered the youth, whom he hoped to lead, and caused 
some empty honors to be conferred upon him. He was sent 
with two consuls to the relief of Decimus Brutus, one of 
Caesar's murderers, whom Antony was besieging in Modena. 
The campaign was short and sanguinary (43). Antony 
was defeated, but the two consuls perished, and Octavius 
demanded for himself one of the vacant ofiices. The senate, 
which thought it needed him no longer, disdainfully rejected 
his demand. He immediately led eight legions to the very 
gates of Rome, made his entry amid the plaudits of the 
people, who declared him consul, had his election ratified, 
and distributed to his troops at the expense of the public 
treasury the promised rewards. 

Second Triumvirate. Proscription. Battle of Philippi. — 
He could now treat with Antony without fear of suffering 
eclipse. He was consul. He had an army. He was mas- 
ter of Rome, and around him all those Caesarians had ral- 
lied whom the violence of his rival had estranged. The 
negotiations made rapid progress. Antony, Lepidus, the 



128 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 43^2. 

former general of Caesar's cavalry, and Octavius met near 
Bologna on an island of the little river Reno. There they 
spent three days in forming the plan of the second trium- 
virate. A new magistracy was created under the title of 
*' triumviri reipublicae constituendse. " Lepidus, Antony and 
Octavius conferred upon themselves the consular power for 
five years, with the right to dispose for the same period of 
all the offices. Their decrees were to have the force of law, 
and each reserved to himself two provinces on the outskirts 
of Italy: Lepidus, Narbonensis and Spain; Antony, the two 
Gauls; Octavius, Africa, Sicily and Sardinia. To make 
sure of their soldiers, the triumvirs promised them 5000 
drachmae apiece and the lands of eighteen of the finest 
cities in Italy. 

Before returning to Rome they issued an order to put to 
death seventeen of the most prominent persons of the state. 
Cicero was among the number. On their arrival they pro- 
mulgated the following edict : '' Let no one conceal any of 
those whose names are hereinafter given. Whoever shall 
assist a proscribed person to escape shall himself be pro- 
scribed. Let the heads be brought to us. In recompense, 
the freeman shall receive 25,000 drachmae, the slave 10,000 
together with free liberty and citizenship." Then followed 
a list of 130 names. A second list of 150 appeared almost 
immediately afterward, soon followed by others. At the 
head of the first stood the names of a brother of Lepidus, 
of an uncle of Antony and of a tutor of Octavius. Each 
leader had given up a kinsman, thus purchasing the privi- 
lege of not being hampered in his vengeance. The ill- 
omened days of Marius and Sulla began anew and again 
were seen hideous trophies of bleeding heads. One was 
presented to Antony: "I do not recognize it," said he; 
"carry it to my wife." In fact it was that of a wealthy 
private person who had once refused to sell Fulvia one of 
his villas. Many escaped on the ships of Sextus Pompey, 
who had just seized Sicily, or made their way to Africa, 
Syria and Macedon. Cicero, whom Octavius had aban- 
doned to the rancor of his colleague, was less fortunate. 
He was killed in his villa at Gaeta. His head and hand 
were cut of£ and brought to Antony while he was at table. 
At the spectacle he manifested a ferocious joy. Fulvia, 
taking in her hands that bleeding head, with a bodkin 
pierced the tongue which had pursued her with so many 



B.C. 42^1.] THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE 129 

deserved sarcasms. The pitiable remains were then attached 
to the rostrum. 

On leaving Italy Brutus had gone to Athens. The gov- 
ernor of Macedon resigned his command to him. From the 
Adriatic to Thrace in a few days everything obeyed the 
republican general. Cassius for his part had seduced 
the eastern legions. 

To raise money, he made the provinces pay in one instal- 
ment the taxes of the next ten years. The republican army, 
loaded down with the plunder of Asia, reentered Europe 
and advanced as far as Philippi in Macedon to meet the 
triumvirs. Antony posted himself opposite Cassius; Oc- 
tavius opposed Brutus. The two armies were nearly equal 
in numbers, but the republicans had a formidable fleet, 
which cut off communication by sea. Thus Antony, threat- 
ened with famine, was anxious for battle, but Cassius for 
the contrary reason wished to defer it. Brutus, eager to 
end the civil war, desired action. Octavius, who was ill, 
had been removed from his camp when Messala, attacking 
with impetuosity, penetrated his lines. Brutus thought 
the victory was won. But on the other wing Antony had 
dispersed his antagonists, and Cassius regarding his party 
as ruined had committed suicide. 

Twenty days after this action, another took place, in 
which the troops of Brutus were surrounded and put to 
rout. Their leader, who escaped with difficulty, halted on 
an eminence to accomplish what he called his deliverance. 
He threw himself on his sword, exclaiming: "Virtue, thou 
art only a word ! " Antony showed some mildness toward 
the captives, but Octavius was pitiless. The republican 
fleet proceeded to join Sextus Pompey (42). 

Antony in the East. The Perusian War. Treaty of Mise- 
num (39). — The two conquerors made a new partition of 
the world between them, regardless of Lepidus, who was 
supposed to have an understanding with Pompey. The 
share of the leaders having been arranged, it remained to 
settle that of the soldiers, Octavius, ill as he was, under- 
took the apparently difficult task of distributing lands in 
Italy to the veterans. Antony was to go to Asia and obtain 
the 200, 000 talents required. He traversed Greece and Asia 
in a continual festival, horribly oppressing the people to 
provide the means for extravagance. In Asia he demanded 
the imposts for the next ten years on the spot. For a 



130 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 41-35. 

savory disli he rewarded his cook with the house of a 
wealthy citizen of Magnesia. Cleopatra had furnished 
money and troops to Cassius. Antony demanded an ex- 
planation of her conduct. To Tarsus in Cilicia, where he 
was, she came in person hoping to conquer him as she had 
conquered Caesar by her charms. 

Antony was an easy prey. When he beheld this elegaiL*^ 
and accomplished woman, who spoke six languages, holding 
her own with him in his orgies, he forgot Rome and Fulvia 
his wife to follow her, tamed and docile, to Alexandria 
(41). While he was wasting precious time in shameful de- 
bauchery, Octavius in Italy was attempting the impossible 
task of satisfactorily dividing the lands. The dispossessed 
proprietors, who unlike Virgil could not buy back their 
property with fine verses, hastened to Rome, lamented their 
misfortunes and excited the people to revolt. The brother 
of Antony thought this an opportunity to overthrow Oc- 
tavius and collected seventeen legions, with which he 
seized Rome, announcing the speedy restoration of the re- 
public. But Agrippa, the best officer of Octavius, drove 
him from the city and forced him to take refuge in Perusia, 
where famine compelled his surrender (40). Fulvia fled to 
Greece with all Antony's friends and Octavius remained 
sole master of Italy. The news roused the triumvir from 
his unmanly torpor but his soldiers ordered peace, and the 
two adversaries made a new partition, which gave Antony 
the east as far as the Adriatic with the obligation to tight 
the Parthians, and the west to Octavius with the war 
against Sextus Pompey. The latter however a few days 
later signed the treaty of Misenum. He was to retain 
Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and Achaea. Lepidus received 
Africa (39). 

Wise Administration of Octavius. Expedition of Antony 
against the Parthians. — The peace of Misenum was only a 
truce. Octavius could not consent to leave the provisioning 
of Rome and of his legions at the mercy of Pompey. The 
struggle broke out in 38. The victory of Naulochus assured 
the success of Octavius (36). Sextus, who had taken refuge 
in Asia, was put to death in Miletus by one of Antony's 
officers (35). Octavius rid himself at the same time of 
Lepidus, whom he banished to Circeii where he lived some 
twenty-three years longer. When Octavius returned to 
Rome the people, who beheld prosperity suddenly revived, 



B.C. 37-32.] THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE 131 

accompanied him to the Capitol and crowned him with 
flowers. They wished to lavish honors upon him. Already 
beginning his role of self-abnegation and modesty, he sup- 
pressed several taxes, and declared his intention of abdi- 
cating as soon as Antony terminated the war against the 
Parthians. Meanwhile his energetic administration rees- 
tablished order in the peninsula. Bandits were hunted 
down and fugitive slaves restored to their masters or put 
to death when not reclaimed. In less than a year security 
reigned at the capital and in the country. Rome was gov- 
erned. 

In 37 Antony came to Tarentum to renew the triumvirate 
for five years. Excited by the victories of his lieutenants, 
he decided to assume in person the command of the Par- 
thian War. Scarcely had he touched Asiatic soil when his 
passion for Cleopatra revived more madly than ever. He 
had her come to Laodicea, recognized the children she had 
borne him, and added to her dominions almost the whole 
coast from the Nile as far as Mount Taurus. Though those 
countries were for the most part Roman provinces, the 
caprice of the all-powerful triumvir had more influence 
than senate or laws. 

At last Antony decided to march against the Parthians 
with 60,000 men, 10,000 horsemen and 30,000 auxiliaries. 
He marched through Armenia, whose king Artavasdes 
was his ally, and penetrated as far as Phraata near the 
Caspian Sea; but he had not brought his siege machines, 
and was obliged to retreat. After twenty -seven days' march, 
during which they fought eighteen battles, the Eomans 
reached the Araxes, the frontier of Armenia. Their road 
from Phraata was marked by the corpses of 24,000 legion- 
aries. Fortune offered Antony a last opportunity to re- 
pair his reverses. A quarrel had arisen between the king 
of the Parthians and the king of the Medes as to division of 
the spoils. The angry Mede intimated that he was ready 
to join the Romans. Cleopatra prevented Antony from 
replying to this appeal, and carried him off in her train to 
Alexandria. 

While Antony was disgracing himself in the East, Oc- 
tavius was giving to Italy that repose for which she hun- 
gered. He conquered the pirates of the Adriatic and the 
turbulent tribes, the Liburni and Dalmati, at the north. 
At the siege of Metulum, he himself mounted to the assault 



132 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 32-30. 

and received three wounds. He penetrated as far as the 
Sava, and subdued a part of Pannonia. Thus, of the two 
triumvirs, the one was bestowing Eoman countries upon a 
barbarous queen, and the other was increasing the territory 
of the empire. However Antony complained and demanded 
a share in the spoils of Sextus and Lepidus. Octavius re- 
plied with bitter criticisms of his conduct in the East, and 
read to the senate the will of Antony, which bequeathed to 
Cleopatra and her children the greater part of the provinces 
which he had in his power. Octavius wished by this means 
to strengthen the rumor that Antony, should he become 
the master, would make a gift to Cleopatra of Rome itself. 
A decree of the senate declared war against the queen of 
Egypt. 

Actium. Death of Antony and Reduction of Egypt to a 
Province. — Antony had collected 100,000 foot, 12,000 horse 
and 500 great ships of war. Octavius had only 80,000 
foot, 12,000 horse and 250 vessels of inferior size. His 
galleys however were lighter and swifter and were manned 
by the veteran sailors and soldiers who had defeated Sextus 
Pompey. The battle was fought off Actium on the coast of 
Acarnania (31). Cleopatra took to flight in the middle of 
the action with sixty Egyptian ships, and Antony cowardly 
followed her. The abandoned fleet surrendered. The 
army for seven days resisted all solicitation. This time 
Octavius did not stain his victory by acts of revenge. No 
suppliant for life was refused. The victor, recalled to Italy 
to quiet troubles there, could not pursue his rival until the 
following year. Antony tried to defend Alexandria but 
was betrayed by Cleopatra and committed suicide. The 
queen herself, having vainly sought to move the conqueror, 
had herself stung by an asp. Octavius reduced Egypt to a 
Eoman province (30). 

Eome belonged to a master. Two centuries of war, pil- 
lage and conqiiests had destroyed equality in the city of 
Fabricius, had taught insolence to the nobles, servility to 
men of low degree, and replaced the citizen army by a mer- 
cenary rabble, who cared nothing for the state, its laws or 
liberty, and recognized only the leader whose hand offered 
them booty and gold. The establishment of the empire was 
certainly a military revolution. But, since Eome had not 
been able to halt at the popular reforms of the Gracchi or 
the aristocratic reform of Sulla, this revolution had be- 



B.C. 30.] THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE 133 

come inevitable. It was impossible that tbe institu- 
tions, adequate for a city of a few thousand inhabitants, 
should be adequate for a society of 80,000,000 souls; that 
the city, now become the capital of the world, should con- 
tinue to be disturbed by sterile and bloody rivalries ; that 
the kings, the allied nations and the provinces should re- 
main the prey of the 200 families which composed the 
Roman aristocracy. 

But in place of the citizens who were despoiled and 
who merited their fate, could men be formed, capable by 
their voluntary discipline and political intelligence of win- 
ning new rights, higher perhaps than those which they had 
lost? 

If liberty was destined not to return, could any one under- 
stand how to organize those multitudes, ignorant henceforth 
of any will save that of the prince, into a vigorous body 
capable of a long existence? Since there is to be an empire 
instead of a city, shall we see a great nation take the place 
of the oligarchy which had just been overthrown, and of 
the populace which regarded the victory of Caesar and of 
Octavius as its triumph? The history of Augustus and 
of his successors will be the answer. 



134 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 30. 



IX 

AUGUSTUS AND THE JULIAN EMPERORS 
(B.C. 31-A.1>. 68) 

Constitution of the Imperial Power (30-12). — Antony was 
dead and Egypt attached to the imperial domain. Octa- 
vius returned to Asia Minor. There he spent the winter 
in regulating the affairs of the East, while Maecenas and 
Agrippa kept watch for him in Rome. Their task was 
easy, for the only sounds were the adulatory decrees of the 
senate. When at last he returned to his capital after his 
triumph, he distributed to the soldiers 1000 sesterces apiece, 
to the citizens four hundred, and shut the temple of Janus 
to announce the new era of peace and order that had begun. 

As consul he was legally to retain for six years almost 
the entire executive power. Yet above all he had need of 
the army. In order to remain at its head he caused the 
senate to bestow upon him the title of imperator with the 
supreme command of all the military forces. The generals 
were henceforth only his lieutenants, and the soldiers took 
the oath of loyalty to him. 

He preserved the senate and resolved to make of it the 
pivot of his government. First however with Agrippa as 
his colleague he was proclaimed censor; this enabled him 
to expel from the senatorial body unworthy members or 
opponents of the new order. When the former censors 
completed the census, the man whose name they had placed 
at the head of the list, generally one of themselves, was 
called chief of the senate. This purely honorary post Octa- 
vius retained during the remainder of his life. Agrippa 
had given his colleague this republican title, and thus 
placed the deliberations of the senate under his direction ; 
for, in accordance with ancient usage, the chief always 
expressed his opinion first and this first opinion exercised 
an influence now destined to be decisive. 

The senators had placed nearly all the provinces under 



B.C. 30-12.] AUGUSTUS AND THE JULIAN EMPERORS 135 

his authority by investing him with the proconsulship. 
Octavius wished that they should at least share this office 
with him. He left them the tranquil and prosperous regions 
of the interior, and took for himself those still in turmoil 
or threatened by the barbarians, and where in consequence the 
troops were stationed. In the fervor of its gratitude, the 
senate called him Augustus, a title which had been applied 
only to the gods. It is by this title he is commonly known. 
Three years later it bestowed upon him the tribuneship for 
life or inviolability in office. In the year 19 he was de- 
creed consul for life. He had formerly accepted the com- 
mand of the provinces and the armies for ten years only. 
In the year 18 he caused his powers to be renewed, each 
time protesting against the violence done his preferences in 
the name of the public interest. Finally he caused him- 
self to be named sovereign pontiff. There was nothing 
else left worth the taking (12). Thus centring in himself 
every high office, conferred in accordance with all the 
forms of law, he was absolute master of Rome and the 
empire. His reign of forty-four years was employed in 
tranquil organization of the monarchy. The emasculated 
senate still existed as the council of state. He even in- 
creased its attributes by intrusting to it the decision in all 
political cases and important suits. The people also retained 
the form of their assemblies, but the public elections were 
merely to confirm the choice made by the prince. 

Military and Financial Organization. — As the real power 
rested upon the soldiers, he made the army a permanent 
organization, and stationed it along the frontiers in in- 
trenched camps ready to resist the barbarians. Regula- 
tions determined the duration of service, the treatment 
of veterans and the pay of the three or four hundred thou- 
sand men. Fleets at Frejus, Misenum and Ravenna acted 
as the police of the Mediterranean. Flotillas were sta- 
tioned on the Danube and Euxine. As he was chief of all 
the legions and as the generals were only his lieutenants 
fighting under the auspices of the imperator, none of them, 
according to Roman ideas, could enjoy a triumph. 

The civil was patterned after the military administration. 
Annually the senate continued to send proconsuls to the 
interior provinces which the emperor left it. The frontier 
provinces were governed by imperial legates who retained 
office as long as the sovereign saw fit. This was a salutary 



136 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [b.c. 12. 

innovation, because now the officers remained long at their 
posts, and hence became acquainted with the needs of those 
under their administration. 

As there were apparently two kinds of provinces, there 
were two financial administrations, the public treasury 
or aerarium, and the treasury of the prince or the fiscus. 
The serarium, which received the tributes of the senatorial 
provinces, was moreover put by the senate at the sover- 
eign's disposition, so he disposed of all the financial re- 
sources of the empire just as lie disposed of all its military 
forces. These resources were insufficient to defray the new 
expenses. It became necessary to reestablish customs 
duties and create new taxes, such as a twentieth on inheri- 
tances, a hundredth on commodities and fines for celibacy. 
All these revenues, joined to the tributes of the provinces, 
yielded perhaps eighty or a hundred million dollars. 

Administration of Augustus in the Provinces and at Rome. 
— If everything belonged to Augustus, his time, his ser- 
vices, and even his fortune belonged to all. During his 
long journeys through the provinces, he relieved cities in 
debt and rebuilt those which some calamity had destroyed. 
Tralles, Laodicea, Paphos, overthrown by earthquake, arose 
from their ruins more beautiful than before. One year he 
even defrayed from his own revenues all the taxes of the 
province of Asia. The measures of the imperial adminis- 
tration in general accorded with the conduct of the prince, 
who was an example and a lesson to his officers. In re- 
ligious matters no violence was allowed save in Gaul, 
where druidism with its human sacrifices was vigorously 
assailed. That the taxes might be justly apportioned a 
general register of valuation was needed. Augustus had 
this drawn up. 

Three geometers travelled throughout the empire and 
measured distances. This work served also another end. 
The empire once surveyed and measured, it was easy to 
make roads. Augustus repaired those of Italy, constructed 
those of Cisalpine Gaul and covered all Gaul and the Ibe- 
rian peninsula with highways. Then upon these roads a 
regular service of posts was organized. The messengers 
of the prince and the armies could be rapidly transported 
from one province to another. Commerce and civilization 
gained thereby. New life circulated in this empire, so 
admirably planted all around the Mediterranean Sea. 



A.D. 9.] AUGUSTUS AND THE JULIAN EMPERORS 137 

Augustus devoted particular attention to contenting the 
people of Eorae with games and distribution of corn. He 
adorned the city Avith numerous monuments, appointed a 
prefect and city cohorts to preserve public tranquillity, and 
night watches to prevent or extinguish fires. He could 
boast of leaving a city of marble where he had found one 
of brick. In the still barbarous Western provinces, by 
making new territorial divisions, he effaced their former 
independent habits, and founded numerous colonies to mul- 
tiply the Roman element in the midst of these populations. 

During the triumvirate Octavius had often exhibited 
cruelty, but Augustus almost always pardoned. He lived 
less like a prince than like a plain private person, simply 
and with dignity with his friends, Maecenas, Horace, Virgil, 
Agrippa, who were not always courtiers. 

Foreign Policy. Defeat of Varus (9 a.d.). — After 
Actium he thought the wars were finished, and by closing 
the doors of the temple of Janus he had declared that the 
new monarchy renounced the spirit of conquest which had 
animated the republic. In fact, there were no serious wars 
in the East, where the mere threat of an expedition decided 
the Parthians to restore the flags of Crassus. But in 
Europe the empire had not yet found its natural limits. 
In order to place Italy, Greece and Macedon beyond the 
danger of invasion, it was necessary to control the course 
of the Danube. To avoid apprehension on the left bank of 
the Rhine the German tribes must be expelled from the 
right bank. This was the object of a series of expeditions, 
all of which succeeded with one exception. In the year 
16, Drusus and Tiberius subdued the tribes in Rhaetia, Vin- 
delicia and Noricum on the northern slope of the Alps, 
thereby extending the Roman frontier to the upper Danube. 
Seven years later Drusus crossed the lower Rhine and 
penetrated to the banks of the Elbe. After his death his 
brother Tiberius took up his winter quarters in the very 
heart of Germany, and the Roman influence spread by 
degrees from his camp. Meanwhile the Marcoman Marbod 
was founding in Bohemia a kingdom defended by 70,000 
foot and 4000 horse, all disciplined in the Roman manner. 
Augustus became alarmed at these neighbors, and was pre- 
paring a formidable array to destroy this rising state beyond 
the Danube, when the Pannonii and Dalmatae rebelled in its 
rear. Tiberius induced Marbod to treat, and thus was able 



138 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 9-14. 

to fall upon the rebels with fifteen legions. However 
three campaigns were necessary to overcome their desperate 
resistance. 

Only five days after the definite submission of the Pannoni 
and Dalraati, Eome learned with consternation that three 
legions had been drawn into an ambush by Hermann, a 
young chieftain of the Cherusci, and had been utterly 
destroyed together with their general Varus. Northern 
Germany was rising in revolt, and was pushing the Roman 
domination back upon the Rhine. "Varus, Varus! Give 
me back my legions," Augustus cried in sorrow. Marbod, 
jealous of Hermann, made no movement, and Augustus, 
reassured on the score of the Danube, was able to send 
Tiberius into Gaul. He fortified the strongholds along the 
Rhine, reestablished discipline and for the sake of restor- 
ing a little confidence even risked the eagles on the other 
side of the river. Germanicus took his place in command 
of the eight legions which garrisoned the left bank of the 
Rhine. The enemy content with their victory were not 
yet desirous to attack. The empire was saved, but the 
glory of a long and pacific reign was tarnished by this 
disaster. Augustus died five years afterwards (14 a.d.). 

Augustus gave his name to a great literary epoch. Pos- 
terity pictures him surrounded by Titus Livius, Horace 
and Virgil, whom the other illustrious writers, Lucretius, 
Catullus, Cicero, Sallust and Caesar, had preceded by a few 
years. We possess nothing of Varius, a tragic poet much 
lauded at the time, but many elegies are left us of Tibullus, 
Ga^xtii^ and Propertius, and almost all the works of Ovid. 
Trogus Pompeius compiled a universal history which un- 
happily is lost; Celsus, a sort of encyclopaedia, of which 
only the books relating to medicine remain; and the Greek 
Strabo composed his geography. 

Tiberius (14-37). — Augustus had adopted Tiberius, a 
son of his wife Livia by a former husband. He succeeded 
without difficulty. To occupy the turbulent legions on the 
frontier, Tiberius ordered Germanicus, who was both his 
nephew and his adopted son, to lead the army beyond the 
Rhine. They marched as far as the forest of Teutoberg, 
where the three legions of Varus had perished. At first 
the Germans nowhere made a stand. Growing bolder in 
the following campaign they ventured to meet the Roman 
army, and were defeated in the great battle of Idistavisus. 



A.D. 14-26,] AUGUSTUS AND THE JULIAN EMPERORS 139 

A second battle was a second massacre, and Varus was 
avenged. Germanicus then returned to Gaul, where he 
found letters from Tiberius recalling him to Rome to 
receive the consulship, and to undertake an important mis- 
sion in Asia. 

In Rome Tiberius governed mildly, refusing the honors 
and temples offered to him. He disdained the base flattery 
of the senate as one who knew its value. To the prov- 
inces he sent able governors, did not increase taxation, and 
relieved the frequent distress. Twelve Asiatic cities, 
ruined by an earthquake, were exempted for five years 
from all dues. Tiberius practised his maxim, "A good 
shepherd shears his sheep, but does not flay them." 

In the East, Germanicus without drawing his sword 
humbled the Parthians, who allowed him to give the Arme- 
nian crown to a faithful vassal of the empire, and to reduce 
Cappadocia and the Comagene to provinces. On returning 
from a journey to Egypt he had violent disputes with Piso, 
governor of Syria. His death, which occurred some time 
afterward, was attributed to poison, and Piso's indecent joy 
seemed to designate him as the criminal. Piso to regain 
the government, which he had resigned rather than obey 
Germanicus, did not shrink from civil war. Defeated, he 
committed suicide. Tacitus intimS,tes, without direct as- 
sertion, that Tiberius poisoned Germanicus and then caused 
Piso to disappear. 

The first nine years of Tiberius' reign were prosperous. 
After the death of his son Drusus, everything changed. 
He had a favorite, Sejanus, who had once saved his life 
when a vault fell in upon him, and whom he made prefect 
of the praetorian guard. Dazzled by success, Sejanus wished 
to mount higher still. He believed that he might reach 
the supreme power by overthrowing the sovereign and his 
children. His first victim was the emperor's own son, 
Drusus, whom he secretly poisoned. This death was a 
mortal blow to Tiberius. He felt himself alone and friend- 
less. Naturally suspicious, he now everywhere beheld 
plots and intrigues. To foil real or imaginary conspira- 
tors he employed his power mercilessly. About this 
time, Tiberius, then sixty-nine years of age, quitted Rome 
never to return and withdrew to the delicious island of 
Capreae, at the entrance of the Gulf of Naples (26). Se- 
janus had become the intermediary between him and the 



140 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 26^1. 

empire, /nflaming the suspicions of the old man, he per- 
suaded him to become the executioner of all his relatives 
whom he represented as impatient heirs coveting their in- 
heritance. Agrippina, the widow of Germanicus, was shut 
up in the island of Pandataria, where four years later she 
died of starvation. Of her three sons, Nero was put to 
death or killed himself; Drusus was thrown into prison, 
where he perished of hunger ; the youth of Caius protected 
him against the fears of Tiberius. 

The whole family of Germanicus being practically de- 
stroyed, Sejanus, drawing more closely to his goal, dared 
solicit the hand of Drusus' widow. This was almost 
equivalent to asking to be made the emperor's heir. His 
suit was refused. Hence he resolved to strike at the em- 
peror himself and gained accomplices even in the palace. 
But Tiberius understood him. Craftily depriving him of 
his guard, he had him suddenly arrested in the open senate. 
The people tore his body to pieces, and numerous executions 
followed his death. 

"The cruelty of Tiberius," says Suetonius, "knew no 
bounds when he learned that his son Drusus had died of 
poison. The place of execution is still shown at Caprese. 
It is a rock, whence the condemned at a given signal were 
hurled into the sea." Close beside it rose the palaces, scenes 
of infamous orgies, as Tacitus asserts. Tiberius maintained 
peace along the frontiers, which were seldom disturbed. 
He died at the age of seventy-eight. 

Caligula (37-41). — With acclamations Eome hailed the 
accession of Caligula, son of Germanicus, and the new 
emperor at first justified all her hopes. Soon however, in 
consequence of an illness which seemed to have unsettled 
his reason, he entered upon a war against the gods, whom 
he blasphemed; against nature, whose laws he wished to 
violate, as in spanning the sea between Baise and Puteoli 
by a bridge ; against the nobility of Rome, whom he deci- 
mated; and against the provinces, which he drained by his 
exactions. In less than two years he had squandered in 
mad extravagance sixty million dollars, the savings of 
Tiberius. To replenish his treasury he appropriated the 
lives and fortunes of the rich. One day in Gaul he lost 
while playing at dice. He ordered the registers of the 
province to be brought, and marked for death those citizens 
who paid the heaviest taxes. " You play for a few miser- 



A.D. 41-54.] AUGUSTUS AND THE JULIAN EMPERORS 141 

able drachmas," he said afterward to his courtiers, "but I 
have just won millions at a throw!" For four years the 
world endured this raving madman, who wished the Roman 
people had but one head that he might strike it off at a 
blow. At last he was killed by Chserea, a tribune of the 
praetorian cohorts. 

Claudius (41-54). — Chaerea was a republican. The occa- 
sion seemed favorable for the senate to again grasp the 
power. It made the attempt, and for three days one could 
imagine that 'he was in a republic. This did not suit the 
soldiers. In a recess of the palace they found Claudius, 
the brother of Germanicus, and carried him to their camp. 
He was then fifty years of age, a man of learning who wrote 
the history of the Etruscans and Carthaginians, but sickly 
and timid. His lack of resolution had the most deplorable 
results. The real masters of the empire were his wife, 
Messalina, and his freedmen, Polybius, Narcissus and 
Pallas. Nevertheless they effected some wise reforms, 
made a seaport at Ostia, and drained Lake Fucinus. Clau- 
dius persecuted the Druids, whose worship he sought to 
abolish. 

Abroad, Mauritania and half of Britain were conquered, 
the Germans repressed, the Bosphorus held to its allegiance, 
Thrace, Lydia, and Judaea reduced to provinces, and the 
divisions among the Parthians encouraged. But nine or 
ten plots formed against the life of Claudius brought on 
terrible vengeance. Thirty-five senators and three hundred 
knights perished. Many were the victims of the hatred of 
Messalina, who in defiance of the emperor, the laws and 
public decency contracted a second marriage before death 
or divorce had dissolved the first, and with the usual cere- 
monies espoused the senator Silius. The freedmen, alarmed 
for their own safety, wrested from Claudius an order of 
death, and replaced Messalina by Agrippina, a niece of the 
emperor, who acquired for herself hardly less notoriety. 
The new empress, desirous to secure for her son Nero, then 
eleven years of age, the heritage which rightfully belonged 
to the young Britannicus, the son of Claudius, surrounded 
the emperor with her creatures, appointed Burrus prefect 
of the praetorian guard, and Seneca tutor to Nero. Then 
by way of finishing the affair she poisoned Claudius. 

Nero (54-68). — At his accession Claudius to assure the 
fidelity of the soldiers had given a donative of nearly eight 



142 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 54^-66. 

hundred dollars to each praetorian and a proportionate sum 
to each legionary. This unfortunate innovation the army 
established as a law, and eventually it put the empire at 
auction to the highest bidder. Thus revolutions became 
more frequent. It was the interest of the soldiers to have 
the throne often vacant that they might receive the dona- 
tive the oftener. 

Nero began well. The first five years of his reign de- 
served praise. " How I wish that I did not know how to 
write ! " he said one day, when a death sentence was pre- 
sented for his signature. Seneca and Burrus worked in 
concert to restrain the fiery passions of their pupil, but 
Agrippiua's ambition brought about the explosion. In 
league with the freedman Pallas, she intended that nothing 
should be done in the palace without her. Seneca and 
Burrus, in order to remove a domination which had debased 
Claudius, had the freedman disgraced. On Agrippina's 
threat to lead Britannicus to the praetorian camp, Nero poi- 
soned his adopted brother (55). A little later he robbed 
Otho of his wife Poppaea, and, irritated by the reproaches 
of his mother, caused a vessel upon which she had embarked 
to sink on the open sea. As she saved herself by swim- 
ming, he sent soldiers to kill her. His wife Octavia and 
perhaps Burrus also suffered the same fate. The Eomans 
beheld their emperor, the heir of Caesar, drive chariots in 
the arena and on the stage recite verses to the accom- 
paniment of the lyre! The burning of Eome in the year 
64 cannot be imputed to him. But he made use of it as a 
pretext to persecute the Christians. Some of them, envel- 
oped in the skins of beasts, were torn by dogs; others, 
smeared with pitch, were set on fire alive, and like torches 
lit up the gardens of Nero during a festival which he gave 
the populace. To pay for his extravagance he dealt exile 
and confiscation. At last a conspiracy of senators and 
knights was found out. Seneca, his nephew, the poet 
Lucan and the virtuous Thrasea were forced to open their 
own veins. This raving madman had the sickly vanity of 
inferior artists. To find more worthy appreciation of his 
talents he made a journey to Greece, where he took part in 
all the games and collected many crowns, even at Olympia, 
although he fell in the middle of the stadium; but he paid 
for these plaudits by proclaiming the liberty of Greece {&Q)- 

Nevertheless the empire began to weary of obeying a bad 



A.D.68.] AUGUSTUS AND THE JULIAN EMPERORS 143 

singer, as he was called by Vindex, propraetor of Gaul, 
who offered the empire to Galba. Despite the death of 
Vindex the rebellion was successful and extended to Eome, 
whence Nero abandoned by all was forced to flee. He 
took refuge at the farm of one of his freedmen. When he 
saw himself about to be captured, he thrust a dagger into 
his throat, exclaiming, " What an artist the world is about 
to lose ! " With him the race of the Caesars became extinct. 
Since the time of the great Julius, however, it had been 
continued only through adoption. 

Under Xero, Queen Boadicea in Britain rose against the 
Romans. Corbulo won victories over the Germans and 
Parthians. The reward of the skilful general was an order 
to commit suicide. 



144 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 69. 



THE FLAVIANS 
(69-96) 

Galba, Otho and Vitellius (68-69). — The praetorians de- 
manded the rich donative which had been promised them 
in the name of Galba. " I choose my soldiers," he replied, 
''but I do not buy them." This haughty speech was not 
borne out by vigorous acts. Otho, a former friend of Nero, 
an ambitious man overwhelmed with debts, had no difficulty 
in stirring up the praetorians to massacre Galba. 

But already the legions of the Rhine had at Cologne 
proclaimed their commander, Vitellius, emperor. They 
marched upon Italy, and near Cremona won a great battle 
in consequence of which Otho killed himself. 

Vitellius was famous above all for his voracity. He per- 
mitted the soldiers to do everything and troubled himself 
about nothing except his pleasures, never dreaming that the 
Eastern legions might feel tempted to imitate what the 
Gallic legions had done for Galba, the praetorians for Otho, 
and the legions of the Rhine for himself. The profits of a 
revolution were now so certain that each army desired to 
secure them. Vespasian was then at the head of powerful 
forces, charged with subduing the rebellious Jews. His 
troops proclaimed him emperor. Leaving to his son Titus 
the task of besieging Jerusalem, he marched to take posses- 
sion of Egypt and despatched Mucianus to Italy. The latter 
was forestalled by Antonius Primus, who defeated the troops 
of Vitellius near Cremona and a few days later captured Rome. 
Vitellius, after suffering many outrages, was put to death. 

Vespasian (69-79). — Flavins Vespasianus, the son of a 
tax collector, was of plain manners and had made his way 
by merit. He learned in Egypt of the successes of his gen- 
erals and the death of his rival. But two wars were still 
going on. Titus conducted that against the Jews which 
though fierce was not dangerous to the empire. The other, 
of far more serious nature, sprang from the rebellion of the 



A.D. 70-79.] THE FLAVIANS 145 

Batavian Civilis. This man, a member of the Batavian 
royal family, had resolved to free his nation. He sum- 
moned the Gauls to independence and the Germans to the 
pillage of the provinces. The Gauls could not agree among 
themselves. Cerealis, one of Vespasian's generals, van- 
quished Civilis, who retired to his island, organized there 
a vigorous resistance and finally obtained an honorable 
peace for the Batavi. They remained, not the tributaries 
but the allies of Rome, on condition of furnishing soldiers. 
While these events were taking place, Titus was repress- 
ing the revolt of the Jews. Roused to sedition by the 
extortions of their last governors, they had heroically re- 
commenced the struggle of the Maccabees against foreign 
domination. They believed that the time was come for 
that Messiah whom their sacred books foretold. Refusing 
to recognize him in the holy victim of Golgotha, they 
thought that he was about to manifest himself, glorious and 
mighty, amid the crash of arms. The insurrection had in- 
vaded Galilee, where the historian Josephus organized the 
rebellion. Vespasian and Titus confined it in the capital 
of Judgea. After a memorable siege Jerusalem fell. The 
Temple was burned, the ploughshare passed over its ruins 
and the dispersion of the Hebrew people began (70). 
Eleven hundred thousand Jews fell in this war. 

While Vespasian's generals were rendering his arms tri- 
umphant, he himself at Rome was degrading unworthy sen- 
ators and knights, improving the finances that Nero had 
left in a wretched state, restoring the Capitol which had 
been destroyed in a conflagration, constructing the immense 
Coliseum and the temple of peace, founding a library, and 
appointing teachers of rhetoric whom the state paid. 
Nevertheless Vespasian felt obliged to expel from Rome 
the Stoics, who ostentatiously displayed republican senti- 
ments. Because of his too great freedom of speech the 
most respected of the senators, Helvidius Priscus, was 
exiled and afterward put to death, though contrary to the 
intention of Vespasian. Of serious mind, a man of business 
and method, Vespasian laughed at flatteries as at apotheosis. 
" I feel myself becoming a god," he said when he beheld 
his last hour approaching. But he tried to rise, saying, 
" An emperor should die on his feet." 

Titus (79-81). — He was succeeded by Titus, who had 
distinguished himself in the German and British wars and 



146 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 79-96. 

especially in Judaea. Though his dissoluteness and violence 
had been feared, he surprised all by his self-control, and 
his gentle and affable manners won for him the surname of 
" Delight of the human race." He considered a day lost in 
which he had done no good action. 

Frightful calamities attended his brief reign. A confla- 
gration lasting three days devastated a part of Eome. 
Pestilence ravaged Italy. On November 1, 79, Vesuvius 
suddenly vomited forth masses of ashes and lava which 
buried Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae. Pliny the nat- 
uralist, then commanding the fleet of Misenum, wished to 
behold this terrible phenomenon close by, and was either 
stifled by the ashes or crushed by the stones shot forth from 
the volcano. Titus reigned only seventeen months. 

Domitian (81-96). — Domitian, his brother, was immedi- 
ately proclaimed. In his first acts he showed firmness and 
justice, repressed all the abuses of which he could obtain 
information, and by his active watchfulness assured to the 
provinces an almost paternal government. The frontiers 
were well guarded and the barbarians held in check, includ- 
ing the Dacians who were becoming formidable. But as 
his thirst for money grew with his fears, he soon became 
grasping and cruel. Informers multiplied and were followed 
by executions. His cousin Sabinus was put to death, be- 
cause the crier who was to name him consul by mistake had 
called him emperor. Many rich persons on account of their 
wealth were accused of high treason. 

A revolt of the governor of upper Germany increased his 
tyranny, because Domitian believed himself to be surrounded 
even in Rome by the accomplices of the rebel. Many sena- 
tors perished. Some were accused of the new crime of 
judaizing. Under this pretext his cousin Plavius Clemens 
and his own niece Domitilla were condemned. At last a 
plot was formed among the people of the palace, by whom 
he was murdered. 

It was Domitian however who completed the conquest 
of the greater part of Britain. Vespasian had sent thither 
Agricola, the father-in-law of Tacitus, who pacified the 
island without however subduing the mountaineers of 
Caledonia. Only the south of Scotland was united to the 
province. To protect it against incursions from the north, 
Agricola raised a line of fortified posts between the firths 
of the Clyde and the Forth, and Roman civilization aided 
by numerous colonists speedily took possession of Britain. 




CoijyrigKt. ItJW. by T. V. C're.well 




ti.etA.eJ 1,) C"llo... Ol.j, 



A.D. 96-100.] THE ANTONINES 147 



XI 

THE ANTONINES 
(96-192) 

Nerva (96-98). — The Flavian family was extinct. The 
senate made haste to proclaim Nerva, a former consul. 
With this prince began a period of eighty years which has 
been called the golden age of humanity. It is the epoch of 
the Antonines. Though !Nerva displayed good intentions, 
he had neither the strength nor the time to realize them. 
He adopted the Spanish Trajan, the best general of the 
empire. 

Trajan (98-117). — When Nerva died, Trajan was at 
Cologne. Recognized as emperor by the senate, the people 
and the armies, he remained one year more on the banks 
of the Rhine to pacify the frontiers and restore discipline. 
He wished to enter Rome on foot. The Empress Plotina 
followed his example. As she ascended the palace steps, 
she turned toward the crowd to say, " What I am on enter- 
ing, I wish to be on departing." Trajan banished informers, 
diminished the taxes and sold the numerous palaces which 
his predecessors had acquired by confiscations. In order to 
encourage the free population, he distributed among the 
cities of Italy revenues intended for the support of poor 
children. The senate could almost believe itself transported 
to the days of its ancient power, for it deliberated on seri- 
ous affairs and really assigned the offices. Trajan even 
restored the elections to the comitia. At least the candi- 
dates presented themselves to solicit as in former days the 
votes of the people. He himself in Campus Martins can- 
vassed in the midst of the crowd. The monuments which 
he raised had as their object public utility or the adornment 
of Rome, like the Trajan column which still recounts his 
exploits. Among his works the most important were the 
completion of a highway which traversed the whole Roman 
empire from the Pontus Euxinus to Gaul, and the restora- 



148 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 100-117. 

tion of the road thrown across the Pontine marshes. He 
caused the seaports of Ancona and Civita-Vecchia to be 
excavated at his expense, established colonies in differ- 
ent places, either as military or commercial stations, and. 
founded the Ulpian library, which became the richest in 
Rome. Only two reproaches can be brought against him; 
he had not the sobriety of Cato and he persecuted the 
Christians. He forbade their being hunted, but ordered 
that such as made themselves prominent should be beaten.. 
He himself condemned Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, to be 
cast to the lions. 

His reign was the most warlike which the empire had 
beheld. He directed in person an expedition against the 
Dacians (101), crossed the Danube at the head of 60,000 
men, vanquished the barbarians in three battles, capt- 
ured their capital, Sarmizegethusa, and forced them to 
sue for peace (103). The following year they rebelled 
again. Trajan threw over the river a stone bridge, the 
remains of which are still to be seen, several times entered 
Dacia, vanquished Decebalus, who killed himself, and re- 
duced the country to a province. Numerous colonists were 
sent thither and flourishing cities rose. In consequence the 
Roumanian nation still speaks on the banks of the Danube a 
dialect which is almost the language of the contemporaries 
of Trajan. 

In the East he reduced Armenia to a province. The 
kings of Colchis and Iberia promised entire obedience, and 
the Albanians of the Caspian accepted the ruler whom he 
gave them. One of his lieutenants, Cornelius Palma, had 
already subjugated some of the Arabs. Trajan penetrated 
into Mesopotamia, captured Ctesiphon, Seleucia and Susa, 
and descended as far as the Persian Gulf. "If I were 
younger," said he, "I would go and subdue the Indies." 
Such rapid conquests could not be durable. The vanquished 
rose as soon as the emperor departed and the Jews again 
revolted everywhere. Blood flowed in streams. Trajan 
had not even the consolation of seeing the end of this for- 
midable insurrection. He died at Selinus in Cilicia. 

Hadrian (117-138). — Hadrian abandoned the useless con- 
quests of his predecessors in the East. To prevent the 
inroads of the Caledonian mountaineers into Britain, he 
constructed from the mouth of the Tyne to the Solway 
Eirth the wall of the Picts, numerous remains of which 



A.D. 117-138.] THE ANTONINES 149 

are still to be seen. His only war was a fierce one against 
the Jews. He changed the name of the city of David to 
^lia Capitolina, erected there altars to all the gods and for- 
bade the Jews to observe the bloody rite of circumcision. 
Thus they were now threatened with the loss of their re- 
ligious, as they had lost already their political, existence. 
At the call of the doctor Akiba they once more appealed to 
the verdict of arms under the leadership of Barkochba, 
the Son of the Star, who claimed to be the long-expected 
Messiah. Nearly 600,000 Jews perished and the siirvivors 
v/ere sold. 

Hadrian's internal administration was sagacious. He 
relieved the provinces from those arrears of debt which 
had accumulated during sixteen years, and did away with 
the republican forms which since the time of Augustus had 
perpetuated the false image of Roman liberty. He divided 
the offices into those of the state, palace and army, the 
civil magistracies holding the highest rank and the military 
the lowest. For the transaction of business he established 
four chanceries, and invested the praetorian prefects with 
both civil and military authority. So they formed a sort of 
upper ministry. And lastly Salvius Julianus by command 
of the emperor formed a sort of code from existing edicts 
which, under the name of perpetual edict, acquired the 
force of laAv (131). 

The army, like the palace and the higher administration 
of the government, was subjected to a severe reform. Ha- 
drian made many regulations which have survived him, touch- 
ing discipline, drill and the age at which a man became eligible 
to the different grades. He visited all the provinces one after 
the other, most of the time on foot, accompanied only by a 
few lawyers and artists. A number of cities were enriched 
by him with splendid monuments, as Nimes, where he prob- 
ably erected the amphitheatre in honor of Plotina ; Athens, 
where he passed two winters ; Alexandria ; and Kome, which 
owes to him the castle of San Angelo (Moles Hadriani) and 
the bridge which connects the two banks. He encouraged 
commerce and industry, and rendered the slaves amenable 
to the courts alone, and not to the caprice of their masters. 

The good deeds of this prince make \is forget his shameful 
morals, Avhich however were those of his age, the influence 
exercised over him by Antinous, of whom he eventually 
made a god, and certain acts of excessive severity. In 



150 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 138-180. 

the early days of his reign, the senate executed four 
men of consular rank accused of conspiracy without even 
awaiting his orders. Toward the end of his life, after 
his successive adoption of Verus and Antoninus, plots real 
or imaginary began again and many senators were sacrificed. 
He died at Baiae. 

Antoninus (138-161). — Antoninus, a native of Nimes, had 
been adopted by Hadrian on condition that he in turu would 
adopt Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. He reigned twenty- 
three years in profound peace, and received from his grateful 
contemporaries the surname of " Father of the human race." 
A wise economy in the administration of the finances enabled 
him to found useful institutions and to assist cities afl&icted 
with some calamity, like Rome, Antioch, Narbonne and 
Rhodes, which had been ruined by fire and earthquake. 
" The wealth of a prince," he said, " is public happiness." 
Two conspiracies against him were discovered. Only their 
chiefs perished. A defence of Christianity composed by 
the philosopher Justinus obtained for the Christians, who 
were already numerous in Rome and in the provinces, tolera- 
tion from the emperor and the magistrates. Antoninus car- 
ried on no important war, nothing more than petty expeditions 
for the maintenance of order on the frontiers. 

Marcus Aurelius (161-180). — Marcus Aurelius, surnamed 
the Philosopher, undertook to continue the administration 
of his three predecessors. He had shared the title of Augus- 
tus with Verus, his son-in-law and adopted brother. He 
sent him to the East during a crisis, but Verus concerned 
himself at Antioch only with his debauches, and left the 
skilful Avidius Cassius to capture Ctesiphon and Seleucia. 
A terrible pestilence raged at Rome ; earthquakes devastated 
the empire ; the German tribes on the Danube rose in revolt. 
The Stoic philosopher who occupied the throne did not allow 
himself to be alarmed, and amid the perils of the war against 
the Marcomanni wrote the admirable maxims of Stoic wisdom 
contained in the twelve books of his work entitled MeditOr 
tions. 

Almost all the barbarian world was in commotion. The 
Sarmatian Roxolani, the Vandals and other tribes of whom 
we know only the names, crossed the Danube and penetrated 
even to the neighborhood of Aquileia. The two emperors 
marched against them, and the barbarians retreated without 
giving battle so as to secure their booty. A certain number 



A.D. 180-192.] THE ANTONINES 151 

even accepted the lands which Marcus Aurelius gave them, 
or enrolled among the auxiliaries of the legions. Verus 
died on his return from this expedition. The as yet uncon- 
quered Germans appeared once more under the walls of 
Aquileia. In order to obtain the money required for this 
war, Marcus Aurelius sold the treasures and jewels of the 
imperial palace. He was obliged to arm the slaves and 
gladiators and enroll the barbarians (172). The enemy 
retreated. The emperor pursued the Quadi even to their 
own country, where on the banks of the Gran he incurred 
a serious danger. A storm accompanied by thunder and 
lightning saved him, and gave rise to the tradition of the 
Christian legion that hurled thunderbolts. A treaty of 
peace with many nations apparently gave a glorious termina- 
tion to this war. From the banks of the Danube, Marcus 
Aurelius hurried to Syria to suppress the revolt of Cassius, 
who Avas killed by his soldiers. Almost immediately the 
Marcomanni, the Bastarnae and the Goths resumed their 
incursions. The unhappy emperor, whom fate condemned 
to pass his life in the camp, hastened to march against them 
with his son Commodus. He died without having finished 
the war at Vindobona, now Vienna.^ 

Commodus (180-192). — Commodus, aged nineteen years, 
concluded a hasty peace with the Marcomanni and the Quadi, 
took 20,000 of those barbarians into the service of the em- 
pire, and returned to Rome to contend more than 700 times 
in the arena, to drive chariots and play the part of Hercules. 
Perennis, the prefect of the guards on whom at first de- 
volved the cares of government, was massacred in 186. He 
was replaced, both as prsetorian prefect and imperial favor- 
ite, by the freedman Cleander, a Phrygian, who made money 
out of the life and honor of the citizens. Three years later 
the cruel and avaricious favorite was killed in a popular 
sedition which plague and famine had excited. Then Com- 
modus launched sentences of death against the most virtu- 
ous citizens, against his relatives, against the senate, even 
against the great jurisconsult Salvius Julianus and allowed 
the praetorians the utmost license. As those nearest to him 
were the most endangered, it was their hand which smote 
him. His concubine Marcia, the chamberlain Electus, and 
the prefect of the guards Laetus, whom he intended to put 
to death, had him strangled by an athlete. 



152 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 192-197. 



XII 

MILITARY ANARCHY 

(198-285) 

Pertinax and Didius Julianus (192-193). — Pertinax, pre- 
fect of the city, proclaimed emperor by the murderers of 
Commodus, was recognized by the senate and the praeto- 
rians, but, when he tried to restore order in the state and 
the finances, he displeased the soldiers, who murdered him 
in his palace. Then began scenes without a name, and 
happily without example. The soldiers literally put the 
empire up at auction. Two purchasers presented them- 
selves, who rivalled each other in promises. The mon- 
archy of Augustus was adjudged to the aged ex-consul, 
Didius Julianus, at 6250 drachmas for each soldier. The 
sale finished, the praetorians in battle array conducted Didius 
to the palace, and the senators accepted the man whom the 
soldiers had elected. He had promised more than he could 
perform. The creditors, implacable toward their imprudent 
debtor, would no doubt have overthrown him themselves, 
had they not been forestalled by the legions of the frontiers, 
who also wished to bestow the empire. The British legions 
proclaimed their chief Albinus; the Syrians, Pescennius 
Niger ; the Albanians, the African Septimius Severus. The 
latter being the nearest to Eome immediately set out for the 
capital. The senate, encouraged by his approach, declared 
Didius a public enemy, had him slain, punished the murder- 
ers of Pertinax and recognized Severus as emperor. 

Septimius Severus (193-211). — He broke the power of 
the praetorians ; but, instead of abolishing that turbulent 
guard, he contented himself with certain changes and even 
rendered it more numerous. In Asia Minor he defeated 
Niger, who was killed while about to flee to the Parthians 
(194). Near Lyons he overthrew Albinus (197), whose head 
he sent to the senate with a threatening letter. On his 
return to Rome, he multiplied the executions. Forty-one 



A.D. 197-217.] MILITARY ANARCHY 153 

senatorial families became extinct under the headsman's 
axe. 

To extenuate his cruelties by a little glory, he endeavored 
to seize Seleucia and Ctesiphon from the Parthians, who 
had made an alliance with Niger. On his return he ordered 
a persecution against the Christians, in spite of the elo- 
quent apologies of Tertullian and Minutius Felix. Severus 
administered the finances with economy. After his death 
corn sufficient for seven years was found in the granaries 
at Rome. "Keep the soldiers contented," he said to his 
children, "and do not trouble yourselves about the rest. 
With them you can repulse the barbarians and repress the 
people." Military discipline was strictly maintained, but 
at the same time the soldiers obtained privileges and in- 
crease of pay. After a few quiet years Severus was called 
to Britain by a revolt which he had no difficulty in quelling. 
He penetrated a great distance into the Caledonian moun- 
tains, but incessantly harassed and worn out by continual 
attacks which cost him as many as 50,000 men, he returned 
to the policy of Antoninus, and constructed a wall from one 
shore to the other along the line traced by Agricola. 

During this expedition he had been constantly ill. Never- 
theless his son Bassianus, called Caracalla from the name 
of a Gallic garment which he was fond of wearing, could 
not wait for his approaching end, and tried to assassinate 
him. From that time the emperor's malady increased. 
He expired with the words : " I have been everything, and 
everything is nothing." His last countersign had been 
" laboremus." He left two sons, Caracalla and Geta. 

Caracalla (211-217). — The two princes had already dis- 
turbed the palace by their quarrels. On his return to Rome 
Caracalla stabbed his brother in the arms of their mother. 
Papinianus, refusing to make a public defence of the fratri- 
cide, was put to death and with him perished 20,000 parti- 
sans of Geta. Caracalla made his cruelty felt in all the 
provinces, particularly at Alexandria, where in order to 
avenge himself for some epigrams he ordered a massacre of 
the unarmed people. A centurion, who had an injury to 
revenge, killed him. 

Macrinus (217). — The army elected the prefect of the 
guards Macrinus, who, after a sanguinary battle with the 
Parthians in Mesopotamia, purchased peace at the price of 
50,000,000 denarii ; but the severe measures which he took 



154 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 218-244. 

for the restoration of discipline destroyed his popularity. 
The soldiers mutinied in their camp, proclaimed Bassianus, 
the young and handsome high priest of Emesa, and massa- 
cred Macrinus. 

Heliogabalus (218-222). — Bassianus, better known as 
Heliogabalus from the Syrian god whose priest he was, 
brought to Rome the most shameful passions of the East. 
His luxury and depravity would have made Nero blush. 
He formed for himself a senate of women and, like the 
great king, wished to be adored. His palace was strewed 
with gold and silver dust, and his fish ponds filled with 
rose water in which to bathe. The soldiers were soon hor- 
rified at this unnatural emperor, who attired himself in 
women's clothes. They killed him, together with his mother 
Soemis, and saluted as emperor his cousin Alexander, aged 
fourteen, who remained under the guidance of his grand- 
mother Maesa and his mother Mamaea. 

Alexander Severus (222-235). — The two empresses devoted 
themselves to developing the natural virtues of the young 
prince. They gave him as ministers the lawyers Paulus 
and Ulpianus and formed for him a council of twelve sena- 
tors. The empire passed many peaceful years under his 
reign. On the front of his palace these words, the founda- 
tion of all social morality, were carved: "Do unto others 
as thou wouldest have them do unto thee." Nevertheless, 
his hand was not firm enough to maintain discipline among 
the soldiers. One day they slew their prefect Ulpianus 
under his very eyes. 

The ruin of the Parthian kingdom and the foundation of 
a second Persian empire by the Sassanide Artaxerxes in 
226 occasioned a war on the Euphrates. The new monarch, 
who restored to the Persian mountaineers the domination 
which the Parthians had wrested from them, declared him- 
self of the ancient royal race, and claimed all the provinces 
which Darius had formerly possessed. Alexander replied 
by attacking the Persians. The expedition was fully suc- 
cessful. The news that the Germans had invaded Gaul 
and Illyricum hastened his return. He hurried to the Rhine 
and was there killed in a sedition. 

Six Emperors in Nine Years (235-244). — The soldiers 
proclaimed Maximinus, a Thracian Goth, who in his youth 
had been a shepherd. He was a giant, eight feet tall. He 
is said to have eaten daily thirty pounds of meat and to 



A.D. 244-253.] MILITARY ANARCHY 155 

have drunk an amphora of wine. This barbarian, who did 
not dare even once to come to Rome, treated the empire like 
a conquered country, pillaging cities and temples alike. 
Mankind soon tired of him. Despite their entreaties, the 
proconsul of Africa, Gordianus I, and his son, Gordianus II, 
who boasted their descent from the Gracchi and Trajan, 
were proclaimed emperors. Recognized by the senate but 
overthrown, the senate afterwards itself proclaimed Pu- 
pienus and Balbinus. The people demanded that a son of 
the younger Gordianus should be declared emperor. As for 
Maximinus, he and his son were assassinated before Aqui- 
leia which he was besieging, and a little later the senate's 
two emperors were massacred in their palaces. Then the 
praetorians proclaimed Gordianus III. He was only thir- 
teen years of age. Misitheus, his tutor and father-in-law, 
governed wisely in his name, but the death of the clever 
counsellor enabled the Arab Philip to become prefect of the 
praetorian guard. He slew the emperor and took his place. 

During the reign of Gordianus the Franks are mentioned 
for the first time. They were a confederation of Germanic 
tribes on the lower Rhine, like that of the Alemanni on the 
upper Rhine. The latter constantly threatened Rhaetia and 
even Gaul itself, whose northern provinces the former in- 
vaded. At the other extremity of Germany, the Goths had 
gradually descended from Scandinavia upon the lower 
Danube and the Black Sea. They were for the time being 
the empire's most dangerous neighbors. 

Philip (244-249). Decius (249-251). The Thirty Tyrants 
(251-268). — At the end of five years the soldiers decided 
that Philip had reigned long enough and revolts broke out 
everywhere. Meanwhile the Goths crossed the Danube, and 
the senator Decius, whom he sent against them, was pro- 
claimed by the troops. A battle was fought near Verona 
and Philip was killed. The quiet enjoyed by the Church 
during Philip's reign has led to the erroneous belief that 
he was a Christian. Decius on the contrary persecuted it 
cruelly. However he reigned only two years and perished 
in a great battle with the Goths in Moesia (251). 

The army acknowledged Galbus, one of its generals, who 
promised the barbarians an annual tribute. This had the 
effect of inducing them to return. iErailianus, who routed 
them, assumed the purple. Both were killed by their sol- 
diers (253). Valerian, saluted as emperor, named his son 



156 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 258-270. 

Gallienus as Caesar and endeavored to arrest the imminent 
dissolution of the empire. In 258 he recaptured from the 
Parthians the great city of Antioch and penetrated into 
Mesopotamia; but near Edessa he was vanquished and 
made prisoner by King Sapor (260), who retained him in 
captivity exposed to insults until he died. Sapor had re- 
entered Syria. He was forced back across the Euphrates 
by the praetorian prefect Balista and the Arab chief Ode- 
nath. The latter grew powerful enough to secure recogni- 
tion as Augustus by Gallienus (264). Palmyra his capital, 
situated in an oasis at three days' distance from the Eu- 
phrates, had become rich and powerful through its immense 
commerce. Imposing ruins still testify to its past greatness. 

After the captivity of his father Gallienus ruled alone 
for eight years. His reign was one ceaseless struggle 
against the usurpers, barbarians and calamities of all sorts 
that descended upon the empire. This period is called that 
of the Thirty Tyrants. There were in reality only nineteen 
or twenty, all of whom died violent deaths like Saturnus, 
who said to his soldiers, " Comrades, you are losing a good 
general and making a wretched emperor," and who was slain 
because of his severity. Odenath, a valiant prince, delivered 
the East from the Persians and the Goths, who had disem- 
barked in Asia Minor, but was himself assassinated in 267 
by his nephew. Zenobia, his wife, slew the murderer and 
succeeded to her husband's power. Gaul was independent 
for fourteen years under five Gallic emperors. To internal 
disorder had been added barbarian invasions. The Goths 
and the Heruli had ravaged Greece and Asia Minor. One 
Goth wished to burn the library at Athens, but another pre- 
vented him. " Leave to our enemies," said he, " these books 
which deprive them of the love of arms." The Athenians 
however, led by the historian Dexippus, had the honor of 
defeating these brigands. 

Claudius (268). Aurelian (270). Tacitus (275). Probus 
(275). Carus (282). — Gallienus, who alone appeared legiti- 
mate among all these usurpers, was mortally wounded by 
traitors while besieging one of his competitors in Milan. As 
he expired, he chose for his successor a Dalmatian, Claudius, 
who was then the most renowned general of the empire. 
Claudius had only the time for a hurried march to Macedon, 
where he defeated 300,000 Goths near Naissus, and there 
died of the pest. Aurelian took his place (270). He had 



A.D. 271-275.] MILITARY ANARCHY 157 

first to check an invasion of the Alemanni, who pene- 
trated through Rhaetia as far as Placentia where they 
destroyed a Roman army and thence as far as the shores 
of the Adriatic. Rome was terror-stricken. The senate 
consulted the Sibylline books and in obedience to their 
responses sacrificed human victims. A victory gained on 
the banks of Metaurus delivered Italy; but the danger 
which Rome had incurred determined the emperor to 
surround it with a strong wall. He was less fortunate 
against the Goths. A treaty abandoned to them Dacia, 
whose inhabitants he transported into Moesia. The Danube 
again became the boundary of the empire. 

Tranquillity reestablished on that frontier, he marched 
to the East (273) to encounter Zenobia, queen of PpJmyra. 
This princess, celebrated for her courage and her rare intel- 
ligence, dreamed of forming a vast Oriental empire. He 
wrested from her Syria, Egypt and a part of Asia Minor, 
defeated her near Antioch and Emesa and besieged her in 
Palmyra, her capital, where she had taken refuge. When 
the resources of the city were exhausted, Zenobia fled on a 
dromedary toward the Euphrates but was captured and 
taken to Aurelian. Her principal minister, the sophist 
Longinus, whose treatise on the Sublime we still possess, 
was suspected of being the author of an offensive letter sent 
by Zenobia to Aurelian and was put to death. The emperor 
reserved the queen to adorn his triumph and afterward 
assigned her a splendid villa at Tibur. In the West, Tetri- 
cus, who had usurped Gaul, Spain and Britain, himself 
betrayed his army and passed over to the side of Aurelian, 
who appointed him governor of Lucania. 

Delivered from foreign troubles Aurelian tried to restore 
order in the administration and discipline in the army. 
Desirous of occupying the restless minds of the legions he 
was preparing an expedition against the Persians, when his 
secretary, accused of extortion and afraid of punishment, 
had him assassinated (275). The soldiers, ashamed of hav- 
ing permitted the murder of their glorious chieftain, forced 
the senate to choose an emperor. It appointed the aged 
Tacitus, who died after six months. 

The soldiers then proclaimed Probus, who immediately 
hastened to Gaul, which had been invaded by the Alemanni. 
He recaptured sixty towns, followed the enemy across the 
Rhine and pursued them beyond the Neckar. The Germans 



158 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 276-285. 

delivered to him 16,000 of their young warriors, whom 
he enrolled, though dispersing them among his troops. 
In Illyricum he routed the Sarmatae ; in Thrace the Getaj ; 
in Asia Minor the brigands of Isauria and Pamphylia; 
in Egypt the Blemyes, who had seized Coptos. Narses, 
king of Persia, alarmed by these successes, sued for peace. 
On his return through Thrace Probus established on the 
lands of the empire 100,000 Bastarnse, just as he had 
already established Germans in Britain and Franks on 
the shores of the Pontus Euxinus. He was preparing to 
march against the Persians when the hard labor which he 
imposed upon his soldiers, compelling them to plant vine- 
yards and drain marshes, caused a revolt in which he 
perished (282). The next day the soldiers mourned him. 
They chose the prefect of the guards. Cams, who bestowed 
the title of Caesar on his two sons, Carinus and Numerianus. 
The elder received the government of the West. The 
younger after a victory over the Goths and Sarmatae fol- 
lowed his father to the East. Cams captured Seleucia and 
Ctesiphon but died suddenly, and Nuraerianus hastened to 
treat with the Persians. As he was leading the legions back 
to the Bosphorus, he was killed by his father-in-law Arrius 
Aper (284). Five days later under the walls of Chalcedon 
the soldiers proclaimed the Dalmatian Diocletian, who slew 
Aper with his own hand before the eyes of the whole army. 
Carinus endeavored to overthrow the new emperor, but he 
was slain in battle near Margus in Moesia (285). 



A.D. 285-293.] DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE 159 



XIII 

DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE. CHRISTIANITY 
(285-337) 

Diocletian (285-305). The Tetrarchy. — Forty-five em- 
perors had already worn the purple. Of this number 
twenty-nine, not to mention the thirty tyrants, had been 
assassinated. Four or five others had perished by violence. 
Only eleven or twelve had met natural deaths. Such was 
the organization of supreme power in the Roman Empire! 

Diocletian imposed upon himself the double task of rees- 
tablishing order at home and security on the frontiers. 
While the tyranny of the governors of Gaul drove the 
peasants of that province to revolt, the Alemanni crossed 
the Danube and ravaged Rheetia; the Saxons pillaged the 
coasts of Britain and Gaul ; the Franks went as far as Sicily 
to plunder Syracuse, and Carausius, on being ordered to 
arrest those pirates, caused himself to be proclaimed em- 
peror in Britain (287). Alarmed at this critical situation 
Diocletian took as colleague Maximianus, one of his former 
comrades in arms (285), who assumed the surname of Her- 
culius as Diocletian had assumed that of Jovius. Disorder 
and invasion threatening everywhere, the two Augusti as- 
sociated with themselves two inferior rulers, the Caesars 
Galerius and Constantius Chlorus (293). 

In the partition of the empire Diocletian kept the East 
and Thrace; Galerius had the Danubian provinces; Max- 
imianus Italy, Africa and Spain, with Mauritania; Con- 
stantius Gaul and Britain. The ordinances issued by each 
prince were valid in the provinces of his colleagues. Dio- 
cletian remained the supreme head of the state and by his 
skill and conciliatory spirit maintained harmony among 
princes who were already rivals. He was the first Roman 
emperor to surround the throne with all the pomp of an 
Asiatic court. He adopted a diadem, clothed himself in 
silk and gold, and compelled all, who obtained permission to 



160 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 294-303. 

approach, to adore on their knees the imperial divinity and 
majesty. He began to establish that regulated hierarchy 
so necessary in a monarchical administration to protect the 
prince from military revolutions, and also that despotism 
of the court, that seraglio government, which slays public 
spirit and makes service rendered to the person of the prince 
more esteemed than service rendered to the state. But suc- 
cessful wars justified the measures of Diocletian. 

In the East, the Persians had driven a partisan of the 
Eomans from the Armenian throne and were threatening 
Syria. Galerius marched against them. A defeat which 
he suffered was gloriously redeemed, and Narses ceded 
Mesopotamia, five provinces beyond the Tigris and the su- 
zerainty of Armenia and Iberia at the foot of the Caucasus 
(297). This was the most glorious treaty which the empire 
had yet signed. Diocletian erected numerous fortifications 
there to preserve the conquest. At the other extremity of 
the Roman world, Constantius, after having expelled the 
Franks from Gaul and Batavia, made a descent on Britain 
and vanquished the usurper Alectus (296) who had suc- 
ceeded Carausius. 

Tranquillity having been everywhere restored, Diocletian 
sowed discord among the barbarians. He armed Goths and 
Vandals, Gepidae and Burgundiones, against each other. 
Then he repaired all the fortifications on the frontiers and 
constructed new posts. In these few years the empire re- 
gained a formidable footing. These successes were cele- 
brated by a splendid triumph, the last which Rome beheld 
(303). 

Unfortunately Diocletian was persuaded by Galerms to 
order a cruel persecution of the church. A conflagration, 
which burst out in the imperial palace and with which the 
Christians were charged, increased his wrath. Through- 
out the empire, except in the provinces where Constantius 
Chlorus reigned, the victims were hunted down and tortured. 
Shortly afterward Diocletian grew weary of power and 
abdicated at Nicomedia. Maximianus unwillingly followed 
his example and laid down the diadem the same day at 
Milan. The former chief of the Roman world retired to a 
magnificent villa, which he had built near Salona on the 
Dalmatian coast, and passed his old age in peaceful pursuits. 
One day when Maximianus was urging him to reascend the 
throne, he replied: "If you could only see the splendid 



A..D. 303-313.] DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE 161 

vegetables which I raise myself, you would not talk to me 
of such worries." He died there in 313. The ruins of his 
palace are still to be seen. 

New Emperors and New Civil Wars (303-323). — Galerius 
and Constantius assumed the title of Augustus and chose 
two new Csesars. These were Maximinus, who received 
the government of Syria and Egypt, and Severus, who had 
Italy and Africa and who became Augustus after the death 
of Constantius. Constantine, the son of this last prince, 
whom a brilliant destiny awaited, succeeded his father with 
the title of Caesar. 

The scheme of Diocletian, apparently so cleverly con- 
trived to prevent usurpation by sharing the power in advance 
with a few ambitious men and rendering the supreme au- 
thority almost everywhere present, was in reality imprac- 
ticable. This empire, so vast and now so menaced, could 
be held together for a moment by a firm and experienced 
hand like that of Constantine or Diocletian, but ultimate 
dismemberment was sure. Rome herself gave the signal 
for new wars. Incensed at the desertion in which the new 
emperors left her, she bestowed the title of Augustus upon 
Maxentius, son of Maximianus (306), who took his father 
as his colleague. Thus the empire had six masters at once : 
the two Augusti, Galerius and Severus; the two Csesars, 
Constantine and Maximinus ; and the two usurpers, Maxen- 
tius and Maximianus. Severus was the first to fall, van- 
quished and slain by Maximianus. The latter was the next 
to disappear, banished by his son and put to death by his 
son-in-law Constantine, whom he was attempting to over- 
throw (310). In the following year Galerius died in con- 
sequence of his debauches. Maxentius succumbed in turn 
to the blows of his brother-in-law, Constantine, near the 
Milvian Bridge which spans the Tiber. For this expedi- 
tion Constantine had gained the support of Christianity by 
placing the cross upon his standards (312). 

Licinius, the successor of Galerius, had at the same time 
vanquished Maximinus who took poison (313). Thus the 
empire had now only two masters, Licinius in the East and 
Constantine in the West. This was one too many for these 
ambitious and perfidious princes, who sought each other's 
destruction. Licinius fomented a conspiracy against his 
rival. The latter in reply declared war, defeated his enemy 
and imposed upon him an onerous peace. 



■^Q2 HISTORY OF TEE ROMANS [a.d. 323. 

This peace lasted nine years, during which Constantine 
introduced order into the administration and gained glory 
and power by a victory over the Goths, 40,000 of whom en- 
tered his service under the name of Foederati. Under pre- 
text of protecting the Christians, Constantine attacked his 
colleague and took him prisoner after two victories. He 
stripped him of the purple promising that J^e would respect 
his life, but some time afterward put him to death (^Jc}). 

Christianity. — Pagan morality had risen to a great heignt 
with Seneca, Lucan, Persius, Epictetus and Marcus Aure- 
lius. The activity of the philosophers had some effect 
upon the intellect. But the brilliancy with which certain 
intellects still shine in our eyes prevents our seeing the 
state of spiritual infancy in which the greater part ot tlie 
human race then lay. Por it the fairest doctrines wrought 
bv human reason remained without effect, because they 
were not sustained by creeds born of faith alone. The phi- 
losophers talked grandly of their scorn for fortune, pain 
and death; but they knew little concerning the life to come 
or the pains and rewards in store. Their haughty virtue 
suited hopeless wise men, like some of those Roman nobles 
who, having lost the dignity of the citizen, had taken refuge 
in the dignity of the man. For the masses such marvels 
were required as impress the imagination and impose cer- 
tainty without being understood. -o t • i ^ 
Credo quia absurdum, Tertullian says. Religion alone 
can provide those beliefs with which reason has nothing to 
do. Placed between Egypt and Persia, that is to say, be- 
tween the two countries which have professed the most 
ardent faith in a life to come, Judaea had finally added to 
the grand Semitic idea of divine unity the idea of the 
resurrection and of the judgment of the dead The simple 
purity of the parables of Jesus, his i^/i'^cibl^f ^^^ V/^, J^*J^ 
and in his justice, his teaching, which devoted itself to 
ardent charity for all the suffering and wretched, went to 
the heart of tL lower classes. Meanwhile the Fathers and 
the Doctors, constructing with Platonic ideas the most 
rational and hence the most philosophical system of meta- 
physics which the world had ever known, won gifted minds 
to the cause of the new Gospel. . 

Jesus was born five years before our era m the town of 
Bethlehem in the midst of Jews who, overwhelmed with 
misery, awaited the advent of the Messiah promised by their 



A.D. 323.] DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE 163 

prophets. In the fifteenth year of Tiberius he began to 
journey throughout Judaea, teaching love of God and man, 
purity and justice, the reward of the good and the punish- 
ment of the bad. The Pharisees, the strict sectaries of the 
Mosaic law, caused the holy victim of humanity to be con- 
demned and nailed to the cross. After the Passion the 
apostles dispersed among the provinces where many Jewish 
colonies had been established. The Church welcomed a mul- 
titude of pagans who were disgusted with their marble 
gods and many slaves and miserable people, who at last 
heard a human voice whisper in their ears words of con- 
solation and hope. In the time of Nero there were already 
enough Christians in Rome to excite persecution. Some 
suffered under Domitian. A larger number were con- 
demned under Trajan. That emperor forbade search being 
made after them but, applying the ancient decrees of the 
senate, he punished whoever were convicted of holding 
secret meetings or of showing contempt for imperial au- 
thority by refusing to sacrifice to the gods, the worship of 
whom the emperor as pontif ex maximus was bound to protect. 
Nevertheless as the Church grew her doctrines became 
better known. The pagans set up in opposition the pre- 
tended miracles of Vespasian and of Apollonius of Tyana, 
philosopher and wonder-worker. They also tried to purify 
paganism, thereby rendering it less unworthy of contending 
with the religion of Christ. They introduced into their wor- 
ship mysterious forms, such as initiations and expiations, 
calculated to impress the popular imagination. These inno- 
vations did not succeed in preventing men from embracing 
a doctrine which was both more simple and mild. Chris- 
tianity encountered another danger. Like philosophy it 
had its different schools or heresies. The four Gospels, the 
Epistles, the Apostles' Creed, maintained union, and Aris- 
tides and Justin presented to Hadrian and Antoninus two 
Apologies, which gained for the believers a little repose. 
But the sophists induced Marcus Aurelius to decree fresh 
persecutions in which Justin, Polycarp and many others 
were martyred. The Christians were generally tranquil 
until Severus, a rude disciplinarian, took alarm at their 
secret assemblies and ordered a persecution (199-204) to 
wliich the sympathetic tolerance of Alexander Severus put 
a stop. Under Decius the calamities of the empire were 
attributed to the wrath of the gods on account of Christian- 



164 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 323. 

ity, and the last persecution, that of Diocletian or rather 
of Galerius, deserved to be called the era of martyrdom 
(303-312). It was all the more severe because the Chris- 
tians were then very numerous in the empire. Constantine 
determined to make himself the head of this increasing 
party, and to this resolution owed his victory. 

In his expedition against Maxentius (312) he declared 
himself the protector of the new faith. The following year 
he published at Milan an edict of toleration. As long as 
Licinius lived Constantine used discretion with the pagans. 
Beginning with the year 321 he granted the Church the 
right to receive donations and legacies. He repaid the 
assistance which it had afforded him against his last rival 
by lavishing upon it at the expense of the state property 
which he guaranteed to it in perpetual possession. He 
transferred to the Christian priests all the privileges which 
the pontiffs of paganism enjoyed, that is to say, the right 
of asylum for their temples, and for themselves exemption 
from public service, statute labor and imposts. Even the 
humblest ecclesiastic could not be put to torture, and rest 
on Sanday was prescribed, a great boon to the slaves. 

To multiply conversions he made it plain in what quarter 
imperial favors were to be found, bestowing offices on Chris- 
tians and privileges on the cities which overturned the pagan 
altars. On the other hand he tried to destroy paganism by 
frequent exhortations to his peoples, and afterward when 
triumphant Christianity no longer feared dangerous tumults, 
by severe ordinances which in many places closed the tem- 
ples and overthrew the idols, without however shedding 
the blood of those who remained attached to the ancient 
worship. The Council of ISTicaea, convoked by Constantine 
in 323, finally drew up the creed of Christianity. When 
it had dispersed, the emperor wrote to all the churches 
" that they were to conform to the will of God as expressed 
by the Council." 

Reorganization of the Imperial Administration. — The 
revolution had been accomplished in the religious order. 
He completed it in the political order. Diocletian had 
only outlined the organization which was destined to put 
an end to military revolutions. Constantine resumed this 
enterprise. The first thing he did was to abandon Rome, 
still filled with her gods with whom he' wished nothing to 
do, and to found another capital on the banks of the Bos- 



A.D. 330.] DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE 165 

phorus between Europe and Asia. Constantinople rose 
upon the site of Byzantium, far enough from the eastern 
frontiers to have small fear of hostile attack, while suffi- 
ciently near them to assure their being better watched and 
defended. The site was so well chosen that for ten cen- 
turies every invasion passed her by. In 330 Constantine 
inaugurated the new city as capital of the empire. He es- 
tablished a senate, tribes and curiae. He erected a Capitol, 
consecrated not to the Olympian gods, now dethroned and 
dead, but to learning. He built palaces, aqueducts, baths, 
porticoes and eleven churches. It was like Rome a seven- 
hilled city and divided into fourteen regions. Gratuitous 
distributions of corn were made. Egypt sent thither her 
grain and the provinces their statues and finest monu- 
ments. Rome abandoned by her emperor and by her 
wealthiest families, who went away to establish themselves 
near the court, " gradually became isolated in the centre of 
the empire; and, while fighting went on around her, sat 
in the shadow of her name awaiting her ruin." 

The empire was divided into four prefectures and these 
again into thirteen dioceses. The enormous size of the 
provinces had often inspired their governors with the idea 
of mounting higher, even to the imperial power. So the 
twenty provinces of Augustus were cut up into the 116 
provinces of Constantine. A numerous body of adminis- 
trators, graded in a lengthy hierarchy, was interposed be- 
tween the people and the emperor, whose will, transmitted 
by the ministers to the praetorian prefects, passed from 
the latter to the presidents of the dioceses and descended 
through the provincial governors to the cities. At the 
head of this hierarchy seven great officers formed the im- 
perial ministry: the Count of the Sacred Chamber or 
Grand Chamberlain; the Master of Offices or Minister of 
State, who directed the household of the emperor and the 
police of the empire; the Quaestor of the Palace, a sort of 
Chancellor; the Count of the Sacred Largesses or Minister 
of Finance; the Count of the Private Domain; the Count 
of the Domestic Cavalry; and the Count of the Domestic 
Infantry. The two latter were chiefs of the emperor's 
guards. Add to these officials the throng of inferior agents 
who encumbered the palace and were more numerous, says 
Libanius, than the swarming flies in summer. 

The four praetorian prefects of the East, Illyricum, Italy 



166 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 330. 

and Gaul had no longer any military command, but they 
published the emperor's decrees, made assessments, super- 
intended the collection of taxes and sat as appellate judges 
over the chiefs of the diocese. Their rich appointments 
and their numerous staff made them resemble four kings of 
secondary rank commanding the governors of the dioceses 
and of the provinces. 

The Masters of Cavalry and Infantry had under their 
orders the Military Counts of the provinces. 

Diocletian had already surrounded himself with the 
splendor of the Asiatic courts in order to exalt the majesty 
of the prince. Constantino imitated his example. The 
posts of the imperial court conferred upon those invested 
with them titles of personal but not transmissible nobility. 
Tiie consuls, the prefects and the seven ministers were 
called the illustres ; the proconsuls, the vicars, the counts 
and the dukes were spectabiles ; the former consuls and the 
presidents were clarissimi. There were also perfectissimi 
and egregii. The princes of the imperial house bore the 
title of nobilissimi. 

This divine hierarchy, as in official language the army of 
functionaries surrounding and concealing the sacred person 
of the emperor was called, added to the brilliancy of the 
court without increasing the strength of the government. 
Salaries were required for this immense staff, who took 
much greater pains to please the prince than to labor for 
the p4blic good. The expenses of administration increased 
and taxes increased with them while poverty was already 
draining the richest provinces. Then between the treasury 
and the taxpayer began a war of ruse and violence, which 
fretted the people and extinguished the last remnants of 
patriotism. 

The free institutions of former days still lived in the 
municipal system of government. Each city had its own 
senate or curia, composed of curiales or proprietors of at 
least fifteen acres of land, who deliberated on municipal 
matters and from their own number elected magistrates to 
administer affairs. It had also its duumvirs who presided 
over the curia, watched over the interests of the city and 
judged law cases of minor importance; an aedile; a curator 
or steward; a tax collector; irenarchs or police commis- 
sioners ; scribes and notaries. Beginning with the Emperor 
Valentinian I each had a defensor, or sort of tribune, 



A.D. 330.] DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE 167 

elected by the city to defend its interests with the gov- 
ernor or prince. 

But the curiales, charged with collecting the tax, guaran- 
teed its payment with their own property. Thus their 
condition became more and more wretched. They sought 
escape by taking refuge in the privileged bodies of the 
clergy or army, but were thrust back by force into the 
curia, where at their death their sons were to take their 
place. Their exemption from torture and from certain 
ignominious penalties was only slight compensation. Thus 
the number of the curiales was already diminishing in the 
cities. 

The imposts for which they were responsible were very 
heavy. In the first place there was the indiction or land- 
tax, which was assessed according to the fortune of each 
person as indicated in the register drawn up every fifteen 
years or cycle of indictions ; then the twentieth of inheri- 
tances ; the hundredth of the proceeds of auction sales ; the 
poll-tax, paid by non-landholders and for slaves; the customs 
dues; and lastly the chrysargyron, levied every four years 
on petty commerce and petty industry. The aurum coro- 
narium, formerly voluntary when the cities sent crowns of 
gold to consuls or emperors, had become an obligatory tax. 

These charges pressed all the heavier on small or moder- 
ate fortunes since they fell upon the rich lightly or not at 
all. The nobilissimi, the patricii, the illustres, the spec- 
tabiles, the clarissimi, the egregii, all the staff of the palace, 
all the courtiers and the clergy, were exempt from the 
heaviest of the imposts, which fell wholly upon the curiales. 
The third class, that of simple freemen comprising those 
who owned less than fifteen acres, the merchants and arti- 
sans, were no less unfortunate. The corporations which 
the artisans of the cities had formed had, especially since 
the time of Alexander Severiis, become prisons from which 
exit was prohibited. While destroying industry, the gov- 
ernment supposed it could in this way force men to labor. 
In the rural districts the petty proprietors, despoiled by 
the violence and craft of the great or by the invasions of 
the barbarians, were reduced to becoming the dependents 
of the rich. Thus attached to the soil, they were deprived 
of the greater part of the rights though not of the name of 
freemen. The slaves alone gained in the midst of all these 
miseries. Stoic philosophy and afterwards Christianity had 



168 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 330. 

somewhat humanized ideas and laws concerning them. 
At last they were regarded as men. They were authorized 
to dispose more freely of their savings, and it was forbidden 
to kill or torture them or to separate families when they 
were sold. As freemen were abased and slaves exalted, a 
new condition began to take form in serfdom of the soil. 
This was preferable to slavery, but the discouraged freeman 
ceased to work. Population diminished, and it became 
necessary to repopulate with barbarians the abandoned 
provinces. 

The real army whose duty it was to repel invasion was 
now composed only of barbarians, mainly Germans, to whom 
the guardianship of the frontiers was imprudently confided. 
The legions, reduced from 6000 to 1500 men each so that 
their commanders might be less ambitious, garrisoned the 
cities of the interior. The palatines, who formed the em- 
peror's private guard, were the best paid and most honored. 
Otherwise there was the same system in the army as in 
civil life, of servitude and privilege, which repelled every 
man of value from the profession of arms. The recruits 
were obtained from the dregs of society or among the vaga- 
bonds of those barbarian nations who were soon to dictate 
the law. Sense of military honor did not exist. The sol- 
diers were branded like galley slaves. Thus in spite of its 
133 legions, its arsenals, its magazines, its magnificent 
belt of fortifications along the Rhine, the Main, the Dan- 
ube, the Euphrates and the desert of Arabia, the empire 
was about to be assailed by despised enemies. 

If then the new state of things elevated the classes 
formerly humble as the slave, the woman, the child, it 
on the other hand degraded whatever had been strong and 
proud as the freeman or citizen. As soldiers were want- 
ing, so were writers and artists. Nothing great could issue 
from the schools, which Valentinian was to reorganize. 
They had only sophists and rhetoricians like Libanius, or 
scribblers of light verses and of epithalamia like Claudian. 
Literature and art, still closely linked with paganism, fell 
with the creed whose followers were soon to be found only 
in rural districts. 

Faith and life, withdrawing from the old worship and 
the old society, passed to those that were new. Christian- 
ity had developed and received form in the fires of perse- 
cution. It had ascended the throne with Constantine, who 



A.D. 323-337.] DIOCLETIAN AND CONSTANTINE 169 

heaped privileges, immunities and wealth upon the Church. 
Thus an influence was added to that which it already pos- 
sessed through its young and ardent faith, its proselyting 
spirit and the genius of its leaders. Even heresy had 
served to strengthen it. From its bosom sprang forth a 
lofty, passionate, active literature, represented by Ter- 
tullian. Saint Athanasius, Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, 
Saint Gregory of Nazianzen, Lactantius, Salvian and many 
more. Fifteen great councils held in the fourth century 
bore witness to its activity, and were already regulating its 
doctrine, its discipline and its ecclesiastical hierarchy. 
Though empire and ancient social order crumble away, the 
Church will survive. It will welcome the barbarians to its 
embrace, sending to the Dacian Goths an Arian bishop 
Ulphilas, to translate the Bible into their dialect, and 
other missionaries to convert the Burgundians. 

Last Years of Constantine (323-337). — These three mighty 
facts — the establishment of Christianity as the dominant 
religion of the empire, the foundation of Constantinople 
and the administrative reorganization — fill the reign of 
Constantine. From his defeat of Licinius in 323 to his 
death in 337, we find nothing in his personal history except 
the bloody tragedies of the imperial palace, in which by his 
orders his son Crispus, his empress Fausta and the son of 
Licinius, a child of twelve, were put to death. Embassies 
of Blemmyes, Ethiopians and Indians, a treaty with Sapor 
II, who promised to ameliorate the condition of the Chris- 
tians in Persia, and two successful expeditions against the 
Goths and the Sarmatse (332), caused all these domestic mis- 
fortunes to be forgotten. A few days before expiring Con- 
stantine was baptized. 



170 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 337-36L 



XIV 

CONSTANTIUS. JULIAN. THEODOSIUS 

Constantius (337). — Constantine committed the mistake 
of dividing the empire between his three sons and several 
of his nephews, without deciding upon a definitive dismem- 
berment. This procedure caused fresh wars and fresh 
crimes. First of all the soldiers massacred his nephews 
with the exception of Gallus and Julian. The eldest of his 
sons, Constantine II, perished in battle against one of his 
brothers (340) who himself was killed (350) by the Frank 
Magnentius. Constantius, who had to check the Persians 
in the East and to combat a usurper in the West, appointed 
his cousin Gallus as Csesar and intrusted to him the war 
against Sapor. Magnentius killed himself on being de- 
feated in Pannonia (351), whereupon Gaul, Spain and Brit- 
ain submitted. Thus all the provinces were once more 
united under one master, but they were no better governed. 
The palace was distracted by the intrigues of women, eu- 
nuchs and courtiers, and the empire by the quarrels of 
Arianism and by the continued inroads of barbarians. 
From false reports Constantius believed that Gallus, the 
Caesar of the East, was preparing to revolt. The young 
prince, recalled from Asia by flattering promises, was taken 
to Pola in Istria and beheaded. His brother Julian was 
spared. Exiled to Athens, he was able to fully gratify his 
taste for study and to become initiated into the Platonic 
doctrines. But imperial authority must be present on all 
the menaced frontiers. So after fourteen months it became 
necessary to recall Julian and intrust to him, as Caesar, the 
defence of Gaul, now invaded by the Franks and the Ale- 
manni. He vanquished the barbarians in the battle of 
Strasburg (357), expelled them from all the country com- 
prised between Basle and Cologne, crossed the Rhine and 
brought back a great number of captive Gauls and legiona- 
ries as prisoners. His skilful administration rendered him 
as popular with the citizens as his victories had done with 
the soldiers. Constantius grew uneasy and wished to take 




Cojiyiigbt. l!i9U, L> T. V. Crbwell ,5c Co. 




Ebgri-^l) CuUui.. Ul.iuauJiCo., N. V. 



A.D. 361-363.] CONSTANTIUS. JULIAN. THEODOSIUS 171 

away his troops, but they mutinied and proclaimed him 
Augustus. This was a declaration of war. A bold and 
rapid march had already brought Julian to the heart of 
Illyricum, when Constantius died (361). 

Julian (361). —Julian, a conqueror without a combat 
abjured Christianity and received the surname of the Apos- 
tate. He publicly professed the ancient faith and reopened 
the temples. He strangely misunderstood the society which 
he was called to rule by attempting to restore life to the 
dead. Had he lived longer, he would doubtless have cruelly 
expiated this unintelligent return to the past. Neverthe- 
less he did not summon the aid of violence to effect the 
triumph of reaction. He promulgated an edict of toleration 
which permitted the sacrifices forbidden by Constantius 
and recalled the exiled members of all religious parties • 
but he must be reproached for one astute order which for- 
bade Christians to teach belles-lettres. The reign of Con 
stantius had been incessantly troubled by the contentions 
of the Arians and the Orthodox. Alexandria and Constanti- 
nople were the principal theatres of this struggle These 
quarrels assisted Julian in his attempted restoration of 
paganism. Also the sect of the Donatists was devastating 
Africa at the same time. The Circumcelliones, separating 
from the Donatists, wished to establish social equality. They 
liberated debtors, broke the chains of the slaves and divided 
the property of the masters. Hence arose a savage war 

Austere himself, he lay claim to the simplicity of a rigid 
stoic. He was sometimes harsh toward others. Thus to 
judge faithless officers, after his accession he established a 
tribunal which was charged with revising unjust decisions. 
Unce when severity would have been justified he displayed 
a patience which does him honor. Anxious to avenge upon 
the Fersians the long injuries of the empire, he had reached 
byria with his army. At Antioch the inhabitants, zealous 
Christians, loudly ridiculed him for his untrimmed beard 
and shabby clothing and even proceeded to insult The 
emperor could punish, but the philosopher contented him- 
self with replying by the Misoj^ogon, a satire on their effem- 
inate habits. At the head of 60,000 men he penetrated 
to ^tesiphon where he crossed the Tigris and burned 
his fleet that his soldiers might have no other hope than 
victory. But misled by traitors and in need of provisions 
he was obliged to fall back upon Gordyene to which a vic^ 



172 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 36^-378. 

tory opened the road. In a second combat he fell severely 
wounded, and died conversing with his friends concerning 
the immortality promised to the just. Only thirty-two 
years of age, he had sat upon the throne less than twenty- 
three months (363). 

Jovian (363). Valentinian and Valens (364). — The army 
proclaimed Jovian. By a disgraceful treaty he abandoned 
to Sapor the supremacy in Armenia and the five provinces 
beyond the Tigris with many strongholds which served as 
bulwarks to the empire. He died seven months afterward 
(364). The generals agreed to proclaim Valentinian, who 
gave the East to his brother Valens, and established himself 
at Paris whence he could observe the Germans. He sowed 
discord among the barbarians, set the Burgundians against 
the Alemanni and after conquering several of those turbu- 
lent tribes rebuilt the fortresses which guarded the pas- 
sages of the Ehine. In his internal government, he was 
stern even to cruelty. Death was the punishment for all 
offences. But he showed himself tolerant in religious af- 
fairs. Unfortunately for the empire this valiant chief died 
in an expedition against the Quadi (375). His son Gratian 
who succeeded abandoned to his younger brother, Valenti- 
nian II, the prefectures of Italy and Illyricum. 

In the East Valens less wise had entered into religious 
quarrels instead of reorganizing the army. A great peril 
threatened. A horde of Huns, belonging to the Mongol 
race of Eastern Asia, had crossed the Ural, subjugated the 
Alani and driven back upon the Danube the Goths, who 
stretched out supplicating hands to the emperor (375). 
, Valens, whose pride was flattered, forgot his prudence 
and welcomed this host of 200,000 fighting men. After- 
ward they rose against him, and Valens near Adrianople 
experienced a defeat more disastrous than that of Cannae 
(378). Barely a third of the Roman army escaped. The 
wounded emperor perished in a hut to which the barbarians 
set fire. The whole country was horribly ravaged. Some 
bands of Saracens, summoned from Asia, saved Constanti- 
nople. Those children of the southern deserts found them- 
selves for the first time in hand-to-hand combat with the 
men of the north whom they were destined to encounter 
three and a half centuries later at the other extremity of 
the Mediterranean. 

Theodosius (378). — At this very time Gratian was fight- 



A.D. 378-394.] CONSTANTIUS. JULIAN. THEODOSIVS 173 

ing the Alemanni near Colmar, while the empire of the 
East was without a head. To replace his uncle he chose a 
skilful general, Theodosius, who reorganized the army and 
restored the soldiers' courage by affording them the oppor- 
tunity of fighting petty engagements in which he took care 
that they should have the advantage. He allowed no for- 
tress to fall into the hands of the enemy and diminished their 
numbers by provoking desertions. At last without having 
won a victory he forced the Goths to make a treaty (382). 
In reality Theodosius gave them what they wished. He 
established them in Thrace and Moesia with the duty of 
defending the passage of the Danube. Forty thousand of 
their warriors were admitted to the imperial ranks. 

In Gaul Gratian had been overthrown by the usurper 
Maximus (383) who, taking advantage of the Arian troubles 
in Italy, crossed the Alps and forced Valentinian II to take 
refuge with Theodosius. This prince brought him back to 
Italy after a victory over Maximus, who was put to death 
by his own soldiers in Aquileia. He gave him as his prin- 
cipal minister the Frank Arbogast, who had just freed Gaul 
from the Germans, but who filled all the civil and military 
offices with barbarians. After the departure of Theodosius, 
Valentinian wished delivery from this tutelage, but a few 
days later he was found strangled in his bed (392). 

Arbogast threw the purple over the shoulders of a depend- 
ent of his own, the pagan orator Eugenius, and tried to 
rally to his cause what pagans remained. This imprudent 
conduct roused the Christians against him. A single battle 
near Aquileia ended his ephemeral domination. Eugenius 
was made prisoner and put to death. Arbogast killed him- 
self (394). This time the victor retained his conquest. 
This victory was also the triumph of orthodoxy. Theodo- 
sius forbade under severe penalties the worship of the pagan 
gods. He forbade the bestowal of honors on heretics, nor 
could they dispose of their property by will. On the other 
hand he made wise regulations in the effort to heal some of 
the evils infesting this moribund society. He honored the 
last days of the empire by exhibiting upon the throne those 
virtues which the people had rarely beheld there. 

The inhabitants of Thessalonica during a riot had killed 
the governor and several imperial officers. Theodosius 
gave orders which cost 7000 persons their lives. This 
massacre excited a sentiment of horror throughout the em- 



174 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [a.d. 395-476. 

pire. When he presented himself some time later at the 
doors of the cathedral of Milan, Saint Ambrose in the pres- 
ence of all the people reproached him with his crime and 
forbade him to enter the church. The emperor accepted the 
public penance which the saintly bishop thus imposed in 
the name of God and outraged humanity. At his death he 
divided the empire between his two sons, Arcadius and 
Honorius (395). This final partition corresponded with the 
real state of affairs, for the Adriatic separated two languages 
and almost two religions. Constantinople, Greek-Orthodox 
though so often Arian, and Rome, Latin and Catholic, had 
each desired its own emperor. This separation still exists 
in the different creeds and civilizations of those two halves 
of the ancient world. 

End of the Western Empire (476). — The barbarians who 
for four centuries had remained on the defensive were now 
beginning incessant attacks. Thanks to her situation, Con- 
stantinople was almost impregnable to assault. Eome, on 
the contrary, was speedily captured. The empire of the 
West writhed for eighty years in a painful death agony, the 
chief features of which we shall find in the subsequent his- 
tory of Alaric, Attila and Genseric. Honorius died in 423. 
His nephew Valentinian III reigned miserably until 455 
and perished by assassination. Majorian, worthy of a better 
epoch, was killed by the Sueve Eicimer who bestowed the 
crown on three senators in succession. ^Finally a chieftain 
of the Heruli, Odoacer, put an end to the Western Empire 
(476) by deposing the last emperor Eomulus Augustus. 
Proclaimed king of Italy by his barbarians, he assigned 
them one-third of the territory of the country, and re- 
quested at Constantinople the title of patrician, thereby 
recognizing the rights of the Eastern Emperor as suzerain 
of the new kingdom. 

Summary. — The Roman Empire fell because it had at its 
origin detestable political principles, and in its latter days a 
deplorable military organization. Taxes, constantly becom- 
ing more burdensome, and a merciless fiscal system alien- 
ated the affection of subjects whom the army no longer 
defended. A new religion, which tended to detach attention 
from the earth, did not strengthen the devotion for the pub- 
lic cause. Thus the empire was not thrown down headlong 
by a violent and unexpected blow. It collapsed because it 
could no longer live. 



A.D.476.] CONSTANTIUS. JULIAN. THEODOSIUS 175 

The Roman people added nothing to the heritage Greece 
had bequeathed. Nevertheless it also left behind great 
deeds and great lessons, though belonging to another order 
of facts and ideas. Its language has been and still in a 
measure is the bond of the learned world. Its laws have 
inspired modern legislation. Its military roads, its bridges, 
its aqueducts, have made men understand the necessity of 
public works. Its administration has taught how to control 
multitudes of men. Its government has served as a model 
to the absolute monarchies which have succeeded the feudal 
system. Its municipal institutions are the source of our 
own and could still offer useful examples. Lastly it began 
the transformation of ancient slavery into serfdom. 

The barbaric kings, dazzled at the splendor shed by this 
dying empire, had at first no other idea than to continue it. 
Clovis will be a patrician of Rome. Theodoric will count 
himself the colleague of the emperor of the East. Charle- 
magne, Otho, Frederick Barbarossa, will call themselves the 
successors of Constantine. The Christianity of Jerusalem, 
become Catholicism at Rome, will be the most powerful 
government of the soul. The spiritual monarchy of the 
popes will copy and strive to replace the temporal monarchy 
of the emperors. The intellectual heirs of Ulpian and of 
Papinian will attach to feudal royalty the powers bestowed 
upon the Caesars by the lex regia. When those royalties 
shall all have perished in their turn. Napoleon will assume 
a Roman title as representative of an idea both new and old, 
the idea of the protectorate of popular interests exercised at 
Rome by the tribunes of the people, whose power, tribunicia 
potestas, the emperors had absorbed. 

Thus the history of Rome will long remain the training- 
school of the lawyer and the statesman, even as artists, 
thinkers and poets will always turn toward Greece. 



INDEX 



Abraham, 38. 

Absalom, 41. 

Ach»an League, 84. 

Achilles, 53, 57, 58. 

Acropolis, 09. 

Actium, battle of, 132. 

^gos Potamos, battle of, 72. 

Jimilianus, 155. 

.(Erarium, 136. 

^schlnes, 81, 86. 

^schylus, 59, 86. 

Agamemnon, 53, 57. 

Age of Ale.\ander, 80, 81. 

Age of Pericles, 69. 

Agesilaus, king of tiparta, 72, 78. 

Agricola, 146. 

Agrippa, 134, 137. 

Ahmes the Liberator, 26. 

Ahriman, 45, 46. 

Ai.x, battle of, 109. 

Akiba, 149. 

Albinus, 152. 

Alcestis, 56. 

Alcibiades, 71, 72. 

Alcmeonidae, the, 64. 

Alemanni, 155, 157, 159, 170, 173. 

Alexander the Great, 18, 28, 34, 37, 43, 78- 

81. 
Alexander Arigos, 82. 
Alexander Severus, Roman emperor, 154. 
Alexandria, 78, 124, 181, 132, 149. 
Allia, battle of the, 94. 
Amasis, 28. 

Ambrose, Saint, 169, 174. 
Amenophis III, 26. 
Amisus, 116. 
Amos, 42. 

Amphictyonic Councils, 54. 
Anaxagoras, 69. 
Angora, battle of, 12. 
Antalcidas, treaty of, 73. 
Autinous, 149. 
Antioch, 150, 156, 171. 
Antiochus, 103. 
Antoninos, 147-151. 
Antoninus, 150. 
Antony, 127-132. 
Aoiis, battle of, 83, 100. 
Apapu, 25. 
Apelles, 80. 
Apollodorus, 69. 
ApoUonius of Tyana, 168. 
Appius Claudius, 91. 



Apries, 28. 

Aquileia, 150, 151. 

Aquitani, 122. 

Aratus, 84. 

Arbaces, 47. 

Arbela, battle of, 79. 

Arbogast, 173. 

Arcadius, 174. 

Archimedes, 100. 

Archons, 62. 

Areopagus, 63. 

Ariovistus, 122. 

Arlstides, 68. 

Aristodemus, 62. 

Aristomenes, 62. 

Aristophanes, 69, 86. 

Aristotle, 69, 81. 
Armenia, 148. 
Armoricum, 122. 
Arrhideus, 82. 
Arrius A per, 158. 
Artaphernes, 65. 

Artaxerxes Longimanus, 43 ; and the Athe- 
nians, 6V. 
Artaxer.xes II, 72. 
Arverni, 123. 
Aryans, 5-6, 51. 
Assurnazirpal, 33. 
Assyrians, 32-35. 
Astarte, 36. 
Astyages, 47, 48. 
Athanasius, Saint, 169. 
Athens, 62 ; B.C. 594 to 510, 62-64 ; in Per- 
sian wars, 65-67 ; at her height, 68-70 ; 
decHne of power of, 71-72 ; Emperor 
Hadrian at, 149 ; Goths at, 156. 
Attains, 105. 
Augustine, Saint, 169. 
Augustus. See Octavius Cffisar. 
Aurelian, 156. 
Avaris, 25. 
Avesta, 45. 
Azoth, 28. 

Baal, 35. 

Baal-.Moloch, 36. 

Babylon, 32, 33, 34 ; taken by Cyrus, 48 ; 

Alexander at, 79. 
Bagdad, 34. 
Balbinus, 155. 

Barkochba, the Son of the St»r, 149. 
Bassianus, 154. 
Bastarnce, 151. 



177 



178 



INDEX 



Belgae, 122. 

Beneventum, Pyrrhus defeated at, 96. 

Bibulus, 121. 

Boadicea, Queen, 143. 

Bocchoris, King, 27. 

Bocchus, 108. 

Botta, M., 34. 

Brahma, 19, 20. 

Brahraanism, 18-21. 

Brasidas, 70, 71. 

Britain, 122, 141, 143, 146, 148, 153, 159, 170. 

Brutus, Roman consul, 90. 

Brutus, Decimus, 126, 127, 129. 

Buddhism, 11, 21-23. 

Burrus, 141, 142. 

Caculus, 109. 
Cadmus, 52. 
Csesar, Julius, consulship, 122 ; Gallic wars, 

122-123 ; civil war with Pompey, 123-124 ; 

dictator, 124-126 ; assassinated, 126. 
Cairo founded, 29. 
Caligula, 140-141. 
Calisthenes, 79. 
Cambyses, father of Cyrus, 47. 
Cambyses, son of Cyrus, 28, 48. 
Camillus, 93. 
Cannae, battle of, 99. 
Captivity of the Jews, 43. 
Caracalla, 153. 
Caransius, 159. 
Carbo, 112. 
Carthage, 95-102. 
Carus, 158. 
Cassius, 126, 129. 
Castes, Indian, 18, 19. 
Catiline, conspiracy of, 119-120. 
Cato, 101, 103, 120, 121, 123, 125. 
Caudine Forks, battle of the, 95. 
Cecrops, 52. 
Celestial Empire, 8. 
Celsus, 138. 
Censors, 92. 
Cepio, 104. 
Cerealis, 145. 
Chajrea, 141. 
Chieronea, battle of, 76. 
Chang dynasty, 9. 
Charlemagne, 175. 
China, 8-15. 
Christianity and Roman emperors, 162- 

164. 
Chun, 8. 
Church, from its beginning to the Middle 

Ages, 162-184. 
Cicero, 119-120, 128. 
Cimbri, 109. 
Clmon, 67, 68. 
Cinna, 112. 

Circesium, battle of, 84. 
Circumcelliones, 171. 
Civilis, 145. 
Claudius, 141, 156. 
Cleander, 151. 
Clearchus, 72. 
Cleomenes, 84. 
Cleon, 71. 
Cleopatra, 83, 124, 130, 132. 



Clisthenes, 64. 

Clodius, 122, 123. 

Clusium, 94. 

Code, of Draco, 62. 

Codrus, 53. 

Commodus, 151. 

Confucius, 9, 13-14. 

Conon, 73. 

Constantine, Roman emperor, 161-169. 

Constantinople, 12, 165, 172, 174. 

Constantius, 170. 

Constantius Chlorus, 159. 

Consuls in Rome, 90. 

Corbulo, 143. 

Corinth, 85. 

Cornelius Palma, 148. 

Corcebus, 54. 

Coronea, battle of, 73. 

Corvus, Valerius, 94. 

Cotta, 116. 

Council of Nicaea, 164. 

Crassus, 113, 123. 

Crcesus, 48. 

Ctesiphon, 84, 148, 150. 

Cuna.xa, battle of, 72. 

Cursor, Papirius, 95. 

Cushites, 24, 32. 

Cyaxares, 47. 

CynocephaliB, battle of, 84, 85, 103. 

Cyrus, king of the Persians, 34, 47-48. 

Cyrus, the younger, 72. 

Cyzicus, 116. 

Dacians, 148. 

Dalmati, 137. 

Danaus, 52. 

Darius, Persian king, 48. 

Darius, son of Hystaspes, king of Persia, 

49, 66. 
Darius, opponent of Alexander the Great, 

79. 
Datis, 65. 
David, 41. 
Deborah, 40. 
Decalogue, 39, 40. 
Decebalus, 148. 
Decemvirate, 91. 
Decius, Roman consul, 95; his son, 95; 

another, 96. 
Decius, Roman emperor, 155. 
Dejoces, 47. 

Demosthenes, 70, 76, 84, 86. 
Devas, 20. 
Dexippus, 156. 
Dictatorship in Rome, 90. 
Didius Julianus, 152. 
Diocletian, 15S 161. 
Domitian, 146. 
Donatists, 171. 
Dorians, 53, 60. 
Dorylaos, 116. 
Draco, code of, 62. 
Drusus, 110, 111, 137. 

Ecbatana, 47, 79. 
Ecnomos. naval battle at, 98. 
Egypt, 24-31, 82-88 ; made a Roman prov- 
ince, 132. 



INDEX 



179 



Ehud, 40. 

Eli, 40. 

EUjah, 42. 

Elisha, 42. 

Empire, Assyrian, 82-35; Chinese, 8-13; 
of the East founded, 164; Macedonian, 
79-80 ; Persian, 48-49 ; Roman, 134-175. 

Epaminondas, 73, 74. 

Ephors, 61. 

Epicharmes, 86. 

Epiphanes, 83. 

Esarhaddon, 83. 

Esdras, 43. 

Euergetes, 83. 

Eugenius, pagan orator, 173. 

Eumieus, 56. 

Euripides, 69, 86. 

Fabius, 104. 

Fabius Maximus, 95. 

Fatimites, 29. 

Feudalism, in China, 9. 

Fimbria, 116. 

Fiscus, 136. 

Flaminius, Titus Quintus, 103. 

Flavians, 144-146. 

Franks, 155, 160, 170. 

Frederick I Barbarossa, Emperor, 175. 

Furies, the, 57. 

Galba, 104. 

Galba, Roman emperor, 144. 

Galbus, 155. 

Galerius Cwsar, 159, 161. 

Gallic war, Caesar's, 122. 

Gallienus, 156. 

Gallus, 138. 

Gauls, capture Rome, 94; conquered by 

Cfesar, 122. 
Gautama, 21-22. 
Germanicus, 138. 
Germany, Romans in, 137-138. 
Geta, 153. 
Gideon, 40. 

Gizeh, pyramids of, 25. 
Gladiators, 118. 
Golden Age, 147-151. 
Golden Fleece, 52. 
Goliath, 41. 

Gordianus I, II, and III, 155. 
Goths, 151, 155, 156, 172. 
Gracchi, 106, 107. 
Grand Mogul, 12. 
Granicus, battle of, 78. 
Great Wall of China, 10. 
Greece, 51-74, 86-88; becomes a Roman 

province, 82 ; Goths and Heruli in, 156. 
Gregory of Nazianzen, Saint, 169. 

Hadrian, 148-150. 

Hamilcar, 99. 

Han dvnasty, 10. 

Hannibal, 83, 99-101, 104. 

Harpagus, 47, 48. 

Hasdrubal, son-in-law of Hamilcar, 99. 

Hatasu, 26. 

Hebrews, 38-44. 

Heliogabalus, 164. 



Helots, 60. 
Helvetil, 122. 
Herculaneum, 146. 
Hercules, 52. 
Hermann, 138. 
Herodotus, 69, 86. 
Heruli, 156. 
Hia dynasty, 9. 
Hiero, 97. 
Hipparchus, 63, 64. 
Hippias, 64, 65. 
Hippocrates, 69. 
Histiaeus, 49. 
Homer, 86. 
Honorius, 174. 
Horace, 137. 
Horus, 29. 
Hosea, 33, 42. 
Hoshea, King, 42. 
Huns, 172. 

Hyksos dynasty, 25, 26. 
Hyrcanus, 117. 

Idistavisus, battle of, 138. 
Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, 148. 
Iliad, the, 53. 
Illyricum, 103. 
India, 16-23. 
lonians, 51. 

Ipsamboul, temples of, 26. 
Isaac, 38. 
Isagoras, 64. 
Isaiah, 42. 
Isis, 29. 
Isocrates, 86. 
Israelites in Egypt, 27. 
Issus, battle of, 78. 
Istria, 103. 

Italy, conquest by Romans, 94-96 ; rebels 
against Rome, 110-111. 

Jacob, 38. 

Jephthah, 40. 

Jeremiah, 42. 

Jerusalem, 34, 41, 43, 44, 144, 145. 

Jesus Christ, 162. 

Jews, 38--14, 144-145, 148, 149. 

Joseph, 88. 

Josephus, 145. 

Joshua, 40. 

Josiah, kingof Judah, 28. 

Jovian, 172. 

Juba, 125. 

Judaizing, crime of, 146. 

Jugurtha, 108, 109. 

Julia, wife of Marius, 108. 

Julian, 171. 

Julian law. 111. 

Justinus, 150. 

Karnak, hall of, 30. 

Kings of Rome, legendary, 89. 

Krishna, 17. 

Kublai Khan, 11. 

Labienus, 123. 
Laconians, 60. 
Lactantius, 169. 



180 



INDEX 



Lake Eegillus, battle of, 90. 

Lake Thrasymenua, battle of, 99. 

Lake Vadimo, battle of, 96. 

Laodicea, 136. 

Leonidas, 66. 

Lepidus, 118, 12T, 128, 130. 

Leucopetra, battle of, 85. 

Leuctra, battle of, 73. 

Library, at Alexandria, 48 ; at Athens, 156 ; 

Ulpian, 148. 
Licinian law, 107. 
Licinius, 161. 
Licinius Stolo, 93. 
Longinus, 157. 
Lucan, 142. 
LucuUus, 116. 
Luxor, obelisks of, 27. 
Lycurgus, 60-61. 
Lydia, 141. 
Lysander, 72. 
Lysias, 69, 86. 

Maccabees, family of, 43. 

Macedon, 75. 79-80, 83, 104. 

Machares. 117. 

Macrinus, 153-154. 

Mfecenas, 137. 

Magnentius, 170. 

Magnesia, battle of, 82, 103. 

Mahabharata, the, 17. 

Mahmoud the Gaznevid, 13. 

Majorian, 174. 

Manas, 20. 

Mandana, mother of Cyrus, 47. 

Manlius, 120. 

Mantchu Tartars, 12. 

Mantineia, battle of, 74. 

Manu, book of the laws of, 19. 

Marathon, battle of, 65. 

Marbod, the Marcoman, 137, 138. 

Marcomanni, 150, 151. 

Marco Polo, 11. 

Marcus Aurelius, 150-151. 

Mardonius, 65. 

Marius, 107-112. 

Massinissa, 101. 

Maxentius, 161. 

Maximianus, 159, 160, 161. 

Maximinus, 154-155. 

Mazdeism, 45-47. 

Medes, 47-48, 50. 

Meditations of Marcus Anrelius, 150. 

Menahem, 33. 

Menelaus, 53, 56. 

Meneptah, 27. 

Menes, 24. 

Messalina, 141. 

Messenian wars, 62. 

Messina, founded, 62. 

Metaurus, battle of the, 100. 

Metellus, 99, 105. 

Meton, 69. 

Metulum, siege of, 131. 

Micah, 42. 

Micipsa, 108. 

Miltiades, 49, 64, 65. 

Ming dynasty, 11, 12. 

Minutius Felix, 153. 



Miseuum, treaty of, 130. 
Misopogon, Julian's, 171. 
Mithridates, 110, 115-117. 
Mitylene, revolt of, 70. 
Moeris, Lake, 25, 31. 
Mole of Hadrian, 149. 
Mongols, 10-12. 
Mons Sacer, 91. 
Moses, 3S, 39, 40. 
Mummius, 85, 104. 
Munda, battle of, 125. 
Muthul, 108. 
Mylitta, 35. 

Narbonne, 150. 

Narses, 158, 160. 

Naulochus, battle of, 130. 

Nearchus, 80. 

Nebuchadnezzar, 34, 42. 

Necho, 28. 

Nehemiah, 43. 

Nero, 141-143. 

Nerva, 147. 

Niciea, Council of, 164. 

Nicias, 71. 

Nimes, 149. 

Nineveh, 32, 33, 34, 47. 

Nitocris, queen of Egypt, 25. 

Numantia, 104, 105. 

Numerianus, 158. 

Numidia, conquest of, 107, 108. 

Octavius Csesar, 127-138. 

Odenath, 156. 

Odoacer, 174. 

Odyssey, 53. 

CEdipus, 52. 

Olympian Games, 54. 

On, city of, 38. 

Opimius, 107. 

Opium War, 12. 

Orchomenus, battle of, 116. 

Ormazd, 45, 46. 

Osiris, 29. 

Ostracism, 64. 

Othniel, 40. 

Otho, 144. 

Ottoman Turks, 11, 12. 

Ovid, 138. 

Palikao, battle of, 12. 

Palmyra, 42, 156. 

Pamphilus, 80. 

Pannoni, 137. 

Panormus, battle of, 99. 

Paphos, 136. 

Papirius Cursor, 95. 

Paramatma, 19, 20. 

Parmenio, 79. 

Parrhasius, 69. 

Parthenon, 69. 

Parthians, 123. 

Patricians, 90-92. 

Paulus, minister of Alexander Sevenis, 

154. 
Paulus ^mihus, 104. 
Pausanias, assassin, 77. 
Pausanias, king of Sparta, 66, 67. 



INDEX 



181 



Pelasgi, 61. 

Pelopidas, 73. 

Peloponnesian wars, 70-74. 

Pelops, 52. 

Perennis, 151. 

Pericles, 68. 

Peipenna, 114. 

Perseus, 104. 

Persia, 48, 78-79. 

Pertinax, 152. 

Perusia, battle of, 95. 

Perusian War, 130. 

Peacennius Niger, 152. 

Phalanx, Philip organizes the, 75. 

Pharaohs, the, 26-28. 

Pharnaces, 117. 

Pharsalia, battle of, 124. 

Phidias, 69. 

Philadelphus, 83. 

Philip, Roman emperor, 155. 

Philip of Macedon, 75-77. 

Philippi, battle of, 129. 

Phllopator, 33. 

Philopcemen, 85, 103. 

Philotas, 79. 

Phocion, 84. 

Phoenicians, 36-37. 

Phraortes, 47. 

Picts, 148, 183. 

Pindar, 86. 

Pisistratus, 63. 

Pithon, 38. 

Platiea, battle of, 66. 

Plato, 59, 69, 81. 

Plautia-Papirlan law, 111. 

Plebeians, 90-92. 

Pliny, 146. 

Plotina, 147. 

Polycarp, 163. 

Polytheism, Greek, 57. 

Pompeii, 146. 

Pompey, 117, 121, 124, 128. 

Pontius Herennius, 95. 

Pontus Telesinus, 112. 

Poppaea, 142. 

Pra.\iteles, 80. 

Priscus, Helvidius, 145. 

Propertius, 138. 

Prusias. king of Bithynia, 103. 

Psammeticus, 28. 

Ptolemies, the, 28. 

Ptolemv Soter, 83. 

Publiliiis Philo, 95. 

Punic wars, 98-102. 

Pupienus, 155. 

Pydna, battle of, 84. 

Pyrrhus, 96, 97. 

Pythagoras, table of, 85. 

Quadi, the, 151. 
Queen of Sheba, 42. 

Ramatana, 17. 
Rameses, city of, 38. 
Rameses II, 26. 
Ramesseum of Thebes, 26. 
Rehoboam, 42. 
Rhodes, 150. 



Rome, ancient, 89-175 ; captured by Gauls, 
94 ; civil wars in, 106-114, 123-124 ; Em- 
pire of, 134-174. 

Roxana, 79. 

Roxolani, 150. 

Rubicon, Csesar crosses the, 124. 

Sabaco, 27, 38. 
Sabianism, 35. 
Sabinus, 146. 

Sacriportus, battle of, 112. 
Salamis, battle of, 66. 
Sallust, 138. 
Salvian, 169. 

Salvius Julianus, 149, 151. 
Samnite wars, 94-96. 
Samson, 40. 
Samuel, 40. 

San Angelo, castle of, 149. 
Sapor II, 169. 
Sarac, 33. 

Sardanapalus, 33, 47. 
Sardis, burning of, 65. 
Sargon, 33. 
Saturninus, 110. 
Saturnus, 156. 
Saul, 41. 

Scipio Asiaticus, 103. 
Scipio, Cneus, 100. 
Scipio, Cornelius, 100. 
Scipio, Pubhus (Africanus), in Africa, 100, 
101 ; in Asia Minor, 103 ; in Spain, 105. 
Sebichus, 27. 
Sejanus, 139, 140. 
Seleucia, 148, 150. 
Seleucidae, dynasty of the, 82. 
Seleucus Nicator, 82. 
Semiramis, queen of Assyria, 33. 
Semites, 5-6. 
Seneca, 141, 142. 
Sennacherib, 33, 37. 
Septimius Severus, 152-153. 
Sertorius, 112, 114. 
Servilius, 111. 
Servius TuUius, 89-90. 
Sesostris, 26. 
Seti I, 26. 
Severus, 161. 
Sextius, 93. 
Shalmaneser, S3. 
Shamgar, 40. 

Sicilian expedition, Athens, 71. 
Silius, 141. 
Simonides, 86. 
Sittius, 119. 
Siva, 20. 
Smerdis, 48, 49. 
Social War, 110. 
Socrates, 69, 72. 
Soemis, 154. 
Sogdian Rock, 79. 
Solomon, 41, 42. 
Solon, 62-63. 
Sophocles, 69, 86. 

Spain, conquest of, by Romans, 104. 
Sparta, 60-62, 66, 70-74, 84. 
Spartacus, 118. 
Sphinx, 81. 



182 



INDEX 



Stabiae, 146. 

Stoics, 145. 

Strafeo, 138. 

gtrasburg, battle of, 170. 

Sublifne, Longinus' treatise ou the, 157. 

Suetonius, 140. 

Suevi, the, 122. 

Sulla, 110-114. 

Sulpicius, 111. 

Susa, 148. 

Syphax, 100. 

Syracuse, 71, 100. 

Syria, 82. 

Tacitus, historian, 140. 

Tacitus, Roman emperor, 157. 

Tamerlane, 12. 

Tchandragoupta, 18. 

Telamon, battle of, 97. 

Temple at Jerusalem, built, 46 ; burned 

by Romans, 145. 
Temudjin, 10, 11. 

Ten Thousand, expedition of the, 72. 
Terentillus Arsa, 91. 
Tertullian, 153, 169. 
Tetrarchy, Roman, 159. 
Teuta, 103. 

Teutoberg, forest of, 138. 
Teutoues, 109. 
Thapsus, battle of, 125. 
Tharaka, 27. 

Thebes, 52, 70, 73-74, 75, 76, 78. 
Themistocles, 64, 65, 66. 
Theodosius, 173. 
Thermopylffi, 66. 
Theseus, 52. 
Thessalonica, 173. 
Thessaly, 75, 78. 
Thetes, 63. 

Thirty Tyrants, period of the, 156. 
Thothmes I, 26. 
Thothmes III, 26. 
Thrace, 72, 75, 78, 141. 
Thrasyboulos, 72. 
Thucydides, 69, 86. 
Tiberius, 138-140. 
TibuUus, 138. 
Ticinus, battle of, 99. 
Tiglathpileser, 88. 
Tigranes, 116, 117. 
Tigranocerta, 117. 
Timur the Lame, 12. 
Titus, 145-146. 
Torquatus, Manlius, 94. 
Trajan, 147 

Traian, Column of, 147. 
TraUes, 186. 



Trebia, battle of (b.c. 218), 99. 

Tribunal of History, 9. 

Tribunes in Rome, 90 ; military, 93. 

Triumvirate, First, 121 ; Second, 127. 

Trogus Pompeius, 138. 

Trojan "War, 52-53. 

Tsin dynasty, 9, 12. 

Tsin-Chi-Hoang-Ti, 9. 

Twelve Tables, the, 91. 

Tyre, 37, 41, 78. 

Tyrtseus, 62. 

Ulphilas, Bishop, 169, 
Ulpianus, 154. 
Uriah, 41. 

Valentinian I, 166, 172. 

Valentinian II, 172. 

Valerian, 155. 

Valerius Flaccus, 112. 

Valmik, 17. 

Vandals, 150, 160. 

Varius, 138. 

Varus, 138. 

Vasco da Gama, 18. 

Vedas, 17. 

Veil, siege of, 93. 

Ve7ii, vidi, vici, 124. 

Vercellae, battle of, 109. 

Vercingetorix, 128. 

Verus, 150. 

Vespasian, 144-145. 

Vesuvius, great eruption of, 146. 

Vindex, 143. 

Virgil, 130, 137, 188. 

Viriathus, 104. 

Vishnu, 17, 20. 

Vitellius, 144. 

Wou Wang, prince of Tchu, 9. 

Xenophon, 69, 72, 81. 
Xerxes, 66. 

Tama, 20. 

Yen dynasty, 11. 

Tu, Chinese emperor, 8. 

Zama, battle of, 101. 
Zedekiah, 42. 
Zenobia, 156, 157. 
Zerubbabel, 43. 
Zervane Akerene, 45. 
Zeus, 57. 

Zeuxis Polygnotus, 69. 
Zodiac, 35. 
Zoroaster, 45, 46. 



c 



A^H ;x 1899 



